Age Differences in Occupant Motion during Simulated In-Vehicle Swerving Maneuvers

Valentina Graci, Ethan Douglas, Thomas Seacrist, Jason Kerrigan, Julie Mansfield, John Bolte, Rini Sherony, Jason Hallman and Kristy Arbogast
Additional contact information
Valentina Graci: Center for Injury Research & Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA
Ethan Douglas: Center for Injury Research & Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA
Thomas Seacrist: Center for Injury Research & Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA
Jason Kerrigan: Center for Applied Biomechanics, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22911, USA
Julie Mansfield: Injury Biomechanics Research Lab, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
John Bolte: Injury Biomechanics Research Lab, Ohio State University, Columbus, OH 43210, USA
Rini Sherony: Collaborative Safety Research Center, Toyota Motor Eng. & Mfg. NA, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
Jason Hallman: Collaborative Safety Research Center, Toyota Motor Eng. & Mfg. NA, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI 48108, USA
Kristy Arbogast: Center for Injury Research & Prevention, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA 19146, USA

IJERPH, 2020, vol. 17, issue 6, 1-12

Abstract: Background: With active safety and automated vehicle features becoming more available, unanticipated pre-crash vehicle maneuvers, such as evasive swerving, may become more common, and they may influence the resulting effectiveness of occupant restraints, and consequently may affect injury risks associated with crashes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to quantify the influence of age on key occupant kinematic, kinetic, and muscular responses during evasive swerving in on-road testing. Methods: Seat belt-restrained children (10–12 years old), teens (13–17 years old), and adults (21–33 years old) experienced two evasive swerving maneuvers in a recent model sedan on a test track. Kinematics, muscle activity, and seat belt load distribution were determined and analyzed. Results: Compared to teens and adults, children showed greater head and trunk motion ( p < 0.03), but similar muscle activation in the into-the-belt direction of swerving. In the out–of-the-belt direction, children showed head and trunk motion more similar to teens and adults ( p < 0.02), but with greater muscle activation. Conclusions: Children showed different neuromuscular control of head and trunk motion compared to older occupants. This study highlights differences in the relationship between kinematics and muscle activation across age groups, and provides new validation data for active human body models across the age range.

Keywords: pre-crash maneuver; child occupant; muscle activity; occupant kinematics; head displacement; trunk displacement; lateral acceleration; restraints (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/1834/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/17/6/1834/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:17:y:2020:i:6:p:1834-:d:331539

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().