Biomechanics / Head & Neck Injury
About Vehicle Head & Neck Injuries
In rollover crashes, catastrophic neck compression injuries, as well as neck flexion (bending) injuries with quadriplegia are a direct result of head interaction with the vehicle roof. The crushing roof pushes the head of the occupant down causing the neck to bend or compress which results in tearing of ligaments and disruption of the vertebral bodies. To date, there are US regulatory occupant protection requirements for frontal and side impact crashes, but not for rollovers.
Our objective is to conduct low cost pendulum impact test research and JRS tests as part of an on-going effort to predict and rate real world head, neck and body injury potential with current model vehicles and their rollover occupant protection systems. We have already calibrated a new low durometer neck to the human neck and expect to publish those correlation results soon.
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