Reconstruction of Actual Car-Pedestrian Collisions with Dummy and Cadavers

Car-pedestrian accidents were selected with reference to criteria like relevance in terms of injury severities representativity and reproducibility aiming to as accurate as possible reconstructions by dummy and cadaver tests. Parameters necessary for performance of these reconstructions were evaluated from the data of accident investigation teams.

Preliminary tests were performed by research departments of automobile manufacturers to check the estimated conditions of these accidents before performing their reconstructions.

A particular aim was to obtain insights into the mechanisms leading to injuries in pedestrian accidents; more generally reconstructing actual accidents is a privilegied approach to determine human tolerance limits and the corresponding protection criteria on dummies; the injuries resulting from the actual accidents are consequently compared with the data measured on dummies and cadavers in the reconstruction experiments. Conclusions are also related to the methodology of such reconstructions.