Pedestrian Accident Reconstruction Using a Human Body Finite Element Model

A series of numerical experiments were carried out using a full-scale vehicle finite element (FE) model and a validated pedestrian FE model with a detailed brain to replicate a typical, vehicle-to-pedestrian collision. We revealed that post-impact kinematics and kinetics are considerably unpredictable due to the intrinsic complexity of pedestrian crash, and ground impact rather than the primary head strike is likely to cause a serious traumatic brain injury (TBI) for struck pedestrians. We also found the importance of accounting for both translational and rotational acceleration pulses applied to the head to assess the potential risk of TBI due to eventual contact with the ground. These findings suggest that an effective countermeasure should be introduced to reduce the risk of sustaining TBIs due to secondary as well as primary head strikes even at the low-speed impact levels.