Estimation of Injury Risk of the Cervical Spine of Car Occupants after Emergency Braking

This study deals with the question whether or not a “braking with maximum deceleration” represents a specific physical load situation for the occupants of a car. For this purpose, a literature study was performed to determine the relevance of symptoms concerning whiplash-associated disorders (WAD) of car occupants who were involved in traffic accidents with low accident severity. Additionally, test drives with full braking cars were conducted to determine the load situation of the neck for human test persons. Dummies were used too, which were equipped with measuring components at the head and thorax to identify the effective acceleration/deceleration and to compare these values to scientific approved characteristic deceleration values and to the existing neck injury criteria. Finally, the likelihood of occurrence of symptoms in terms of a neck injury was evaluated from the medical and biomechanical point of view.

The study shows that there is basically no risk for the occurrence of neck injuries and neck pain (whiplash disorders) for car occupants who experienced a full braking maneuver. This applies for the specific individual measured data of the test subjects compared to the known maximum load from the literature.

But the authors of the study have to point out that special individual psychological and physiological frame conditions can lead to symptoms in terms of minor whiplash associated disorders like muscle tension symptoms.