The University of Adelaide CENTRE FOR AUTOMOTIVE SAFETY RESEARCH

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TitleBrain injuries in pedestrian, motorcyclist and car occupant fatalities
AuthorsMcLean AJ
Year1998
TypeBook Chapter
AbstractInformation is presented on the incidence of brain injury and brain injury as a cause of death among fatally injured pedestrians, motorcyclists and car occupants. The study of brain injury that results from impacts to the head of the living human is introduced in the context of other approaches to the study of brain injury, such as experimental investigations using human surrogates, and the use of physical and mathematical models of the human skull and brain. The investigation developed to relate the nature and severity of the impact to the head to the nature and severity of the damage to the brain is described. Selected characteristics of each of these three types of fatally injured road users are then described together with information on the head injury, impacts to the head and objects struck by the head. Similarities and differences between the head injury experience of the pedestrians, motorcyclists and car occupants are noted, with particular reference to the use of crash helmets. This is followed by a discussion of various approaches to the protection of the head in a road crash with emphasis on the characteristics of the front of the striking car in a pedestrian collision, motorcyclists' helmets and padding of the upper interior of the passenger compartment. The chapter concludes with remarks on the possible implications of differences between three types of road users in the distributions of the location of the impacts to the head.
Book DetailsFrontiers in Head &Neck Trauma, N Yogananan, FA Pintar, SJ Larson, A Sances (eds)
ISBN9051993692
Page Range59-72
Page Count14
Notesavailable from CASR library on request

Reference
McLean AJ (1998). Brain injuries in pedestrian, motorcyclist and car occupant fatalities. In Frontiers in Head &Neck Trauma, N Yogananan, FA Pintar, SJ Larson, A Sances (eds) (pp. 59-72).