COST 327 Motorcycle Safety Helmets Final Report
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European Co-operation in the Field of Scientific and Technical Research COST 327 Motorcycle Safety Helmets Final Report of the Action European Commission Directorate General for Energy and Transport Legal notice Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use, which might be made of the following information. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the European Commission. A great deal of additional information on COST Transport is available on the World Wide Web. It can be accessed through the CORDIS server at the following address: http://www.cordis.lu/cost-transport/home.html Cataloguing data can be found at the end of this publication. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, 2001. ISBN xx-xxx-xxxx-x © European Communities 2001 Printed in Belgium Key Authors: Bryan CHINN, TRL Limited, U.K. Bertrand CANAPLE, University of Valenciennes Siegfried DERLER, EMPA, Switzerland David DOYLE, Southern General Hospital, Glasgow. Dietmar OTTE, University of Hannover Erich SCHULLER, University of Munich Remy WILLINGER, University of Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg The COST 327 Management Committee, together with the Chairman, Steve Gillingham, would like to thank all the members of the Action, in particular the authors of this report and earlier publications, for their valued contributions without which the success of this research would not have been possible. In addition, the Committee would like to acknowledge the support provided by Andrew Stimpson, Martin Kemp and René Bastiaans of the European Commission, and the kind assistance of Mary Legg, who compiled the report. Editor-in-Chief: Dr Bryan Chinn United Kingdom Department for Transport, (DfT) Zone 2/06 Great Minster House, 76 Marsham Street, London SW1P 4DR. +44 20 7944 3000. www.dft.gov.uk Southern General Hospital, Department of Neuropathology, 1345 Govan Road, Glasgow G51 4TF. +44 141 201 1100. www.show.scot.nhs.uk TRL Limited, Old Wokingham Road, Crowthorne, Berkshire, RG45 6AU. +44 1344 773131.www.trl.co.uk France INRETS Case 24, F69675, Bron Cedex. +33(0)1 47 407000 www.inrets.fr Institut de Mecanique des Fluides Laboratoire de Biomecanique, Rue Boussingault, 2, F-67083 Strasbourg Cedex. +33 3 88 41 65 65. www.intelus.u-strasbg.fr Laboratoire de Genie Mecanique Le Mont Houy, BP 311, 59304 Valenciennes. +33 3 27 51 12 34. www.univ-valenciennes.fr Germany Accident Research Unit, University of Hannover, Carl-Neuberg- Strasse 1, 30625 Hannover. +49 0511 532-0. www.mh-hannover.de Institut fűr Rechtsmedizin, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, Frauenlobstrasse 7a, D-80337 München. +49 89 5160 5111. www.lmu.de Hungary AUTOKUT, PF 25, XI Csoka u.9, H-1502 Budapest. Italy AGV spa Zona Industriale D5, I-15047 Spinetta (Alessandrio). +39 01 31 213211 Dipartimento di Ingeneria Aerospatialle, Politecnico di Milano Via Lambrushchini 15, Milano. +39 02 23991. www.polimi.it Netherlands Technische Universiteit Eindhoven, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Den Dolech 2, 5600 MB Eindhoven. +31 40 247 9111. www.tue.nl Sweden Götenburg University, SE 40530 Götenburg. +46 31773 1004. www.gu.se Switzerland EMPA, Lerchenfeldstrasse 5, CH-9014 St. Gallen. +41 71 274 74 74. www.empa.ch Table of Contents Table of Contents EXECUTIVE SUMMARY....................................................................................................i CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION.........................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2. LITERATURE REVIEW..............................................................................5 2.1. Introduction...............................................................................................................5 2.2. Accidents and injury mechanisms.............................................................................5 2.2.1. References.........................................................................................................6 2.3. Biomechanics of head injury.....................................................................................6 2.3.1. References.........................................................................................................7 2.4. Mathematical modelling of the human head and neck..............................................8 2.4.1. References.........................................................................................................9 2.5. Motorcycle helmets: performance and current Standards.........................................9 2.5.1. References.......................................................................................................10 CHAPTER 3. ACCIDENT INVESTIGATION.................................................................11 3.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................11 3.2. Description of the COST 327 database...................................................................11 3.3. Accident sampling areas .........................................................................................12 3.3.1. Accident Research Unit - Medical University Hannover / Germany .............12 3.3.2. Department of Neuropathology, Glasgow/UK ...............................................13 3.3.3. Institute for Legal Medicine, Munich University / Germany .........................14 3.3.4. Road Accident Investigation Teams (RAIT), Finland ....................................14 3.4. Analysis technique and definitions .........................................................................15 3.4.1. Injury severity .................................................................................................15 3.4.2. Impact speed determination ............................................................................16 3.4.3. Head impact speed ..........................................................................................16 3.4.4. Head and body impact angle...........................................................................16 3.4.5. Collision types.................................................................................................17 3.4.6. Definition for mechanisms..............................................................................17 3.4.7. Replication process .........................................................................................18 3.5. Linkage of COST databank to national statistics....................................................18 3.6. Results of the analysis of the COST accident database ..........................................20 3.6.1. Effect of age ....................................................................................................20 3.6.2. Helmet mass distribution and loss ..................................................................21 3.6.3. Injury distribution............................................................................................22 3.6.4. Head injury severity and related factors..........................................................23 COST 327 3.6.5. Collision configuration ...................................................................................31 3.6.6. Neck injury...................................................................................................... 34 3.7. Head and neck injury mechanisms .........................................................................37 3.8. Effect of climatic conditions on accident risk.........................................................44 3.8.1. Introduction..................................................................................................... 44 3.8.2. Analysis........................................................................................................... 45 3.8.3. Comparison of climate conditions in the different countries.......................... 46 3.8.4. Climate conditions in accidents ...................................................................... 46 3.8.5. Visor condition and accident risk. .................................................................. 51 3.8.6. Analysis and results ........................................................................................ 52 3.9. Conclusions.............................................................................................................56 CHAPTER 4. HEADFORM ASSESSMENT ...................................................................59 4.1. Introduction.............................................................................................................59 4.2. Characteristics of existing headforms.....................................................................59 4.2.1. Wooden headform........................................................................................... 59 4.2.2. Aluminium headform...................................................................................... 59 4.2.3. Hybrid II dummy head.................................................................................... 60 4.2.4. Hybrid III dummy head .................................................................................. 60 4.2.5. Bimass head form ........................................................................................... 60 4.3. Impact response ......................................................................................................62 4.3.1. Introduction....................................................................................................