Pedestrian safety - Global Road Safety Partnership

Pedestrian safety: a road safety manual for decision-makers and practitioners
BOX 4.9: Crash test procedures to assess pedestrian safety
Test procedures to assess the extent to which a
vehicle protects a pedestrian in the event of a collision
are now well established in both regulation and
consumer advisory programmes (46). Unlike impact
tests to assess the protection of car occupants,
which utilize full-scale crash test dummies, the
pedestrian crash tests simulate impact between the
car and the legs, hip and head of the pedestrian. This
is largely because of difficulties in ensuring repeatability
in full-scale collisions between a pedestrian
dummy and a car, as well as concerns about the
ability of a full-scale pedestrian crash test dummy to
be life-like in appearance or responses (47). Current
pedestrian impact test procedures are largely based
on specifications presented by the European Experimental
Vehicles Committee (EEVC) Working Group
in 1987. In particular, 40 km/h was chosen as the
vehicle test speed because it was thought in 1982
that it was representative of impact speeds resulting
in serious injury to the pedestrian and some doubt
about the ability of car designers to satisfy the test
requirements at higher speeds (48).
4: Implementing pedestrian safety interventions
4.2.6 Providing care for injured pedestrians
The primary goal in pedestrian safety should be to prevent road crashes from
happening in the first place. However, pedestrians do get injured, despite the
best efforts and intentions. An efficient post-crash care response can minimize
the consequences of serious injury, including long-term morbidity or mortality.
Pedestrians struck by motor vehicles with high energy transfer end up with high
residual locomotion disability and also have significantly higher mortality rates
than occupants of vehicles (49). Injury patterns in pedestrians are unique – in adults
injuries to legs, head and pelvis are common. In children, injuries to head and neck
followed by musculoskeletal injuries are commonly noted. In general, head injuries
are more life-threatening while limb injuries are associated with long-term disabilities.
The severity of these injuries depend upon many factors, including energy transfer
(speed of the vehicle), angle of impact, the body part that first comes into contact with
the vehicle and vehicle design (see Module 1). The considerations for organization and
delivery of post-crash care should take into account these factors (50).
Post-crash care includes a sequential set of actions and care aimed to reduce
the impact of injury consequences once a road traffic crash has occurred (see
Figure 4.1). Patients suffering minor injuries may not need advanced medical care
or hospitalization. For victims of major injuries, a chain of care is needed, consisting
of action taken by bystanders at the scene of the crash, access to the pre-hospital
medical care system, emergency medical services, definitive trauma care at the
hospital and rehabilitation services to re-integrate the victims into work and family
life. The effectiveness of such a chain and the outcomes of the injured depend upon
the strength of each of its links (51). In a fully developed trauma system, trauma care
delivery is organized through its entire spectrum, from injury prevention to prehospital,
hospital and rehabilitative care for the injured pedestrian and other road
users in an integrated way.
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