• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.432-438
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• 2016

Whiplash injuries in low-speed rear-end collisions are the most common injuries and has been a social issue in insurance industry, such as excessive medical claim costs along with exaggerated injuries of victims and treatments from hospitals. According to the Korea Insurance Development Institute reports, the number of claims by rear-end collision was approximately 703,000, which accounts for 53.6 % of the total car-to-car collisions in 2014. Part of the neck injury claims in the Korea car insurance was approximately 28.3 %. Furthermore, approximately 98.4% of the injured persons in rear-end collisions sustained minor injuries under AIS2. In order to improve this situation as well as find out the severity of neck injuries from rear-end collision, the Korea Automobile Insurance Repair Research and Training Center conducted car-to-car rear-end crash tests that striking vehicles(SUV) collided into different sizes of struck-vehicles(small, middle, and large sedan) at the impact speeds of 8 km/h ~ 16 km/h. In order to analyze the whiplash injury, the BioRID-II was seated in each struck-vehicles, and the neck injury criteria(NIC), head contact time, maximum vehicle accelerations, and mean vehicle accelerations were calculated from values from the accelerations of the dummy and the struck-vehicles.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.463-473
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• 2008

In this study, we measure damage depth and calculate effective impact speed in case of rear-end collision using real car insurance data. We study the relationship between demage depth and effective impact speed, and present statistical model for these two variables. In our real data study, 3-degree polynomial equation model is better fit to effective impact speed and demage depth than the simple linear model that are estimated in previous other studies. Damage depth is a major factor to see the extent of impact in a car collision, and by using this equation, it is possible to evaluate the severity of driver's injury.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.14 no.11
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• pp.1232-1243
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• 2000

Motor vehicle accidents in rear impacts cause more than fifty percents of drivers to suffer from neck injuries. It is known that most neck injuries are associated with rear-end collisions at a speed lower than 32 km/h and between the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) 1 and AIS 2. Two different types of low speed crash tests such as the frontal barrier and rear moving barrier crashes have been conducted by following the procedure of the Research Committee for Automobile Repairs (RCAR). The injury for the neck and the Head Injury Criteria (HIC) were measured by using the sensors mounted on dummies. We reviewed neck injures and the relationship between the neck and head injuries, and examined the deceleration of the body. Using the experimental test data at the neck, we investigated an improved neck injury criterion Nij. Also, the effects of the position of a head restraint on reducing the frequency and severity of the neck injury in rear-end collisions were investigated.

• The Journal of The Korea Institute of Intelligent Transport Systems
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.58-76
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• 2019

As the number of reported injuries has tended to increase over time, large hospitalization expenditure from excessive medical treatments and hospitalization, and insurance frauds associated with moral hazard in minor collisions have caused a global societal problem. Many occupants of rear-ended vehicles involved in rear-end collisions complain of whiplash injury, which is also known as neck injury, without any anatomical and radiological evidence. With only clinical symptoms, stating that a whiplash injury is a type of injury defined by the Abbreviated Injury Scale would be difficult. Therefore, this study focuses on minor rear-end collisions, where the rear-ender vehicle collides with the rear-ended vehicle at rest. The mathematics dynamic model is employed to simulate a total of 100 rear-end collision scenarios based on various weights and collision speeds and identify how the weights and speeds of both vehicles influence the risk of whiplash injury in occupants involved in minor rear-end collisions. The possibility of an injury is very high when the same-weight vehicles are involved in accidents at collision speeds of 15 km/h or higher. The possibilities are 36% and 84% with collision speeds of 15 km/h and 20 km/h, respectively, if weights are disregarded.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.181-191
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• 2006

The most common kind of vehicular accident is the low-speed rear-end impact that result in high portion of insurance claims and Whiplash Associated Disorders(WAD). The low-speed collisions have specific characteristics that differ from high speed collisions and must be treated differently This paper presents a simple continuous contact force model for the low-speed rear-end impact to simulate the accelerations, velocities and the contact force as functions of time. A smoothed Coulomb friction force is used to represent the effect of braking, which was found to be significant in simulating low-speed rear end impact. The intervehicular contact force is modeled using nonlinear damping and spring elements with coefficients and exponents. This paper presents how to estimate analytically stiffness and damping coefficients. The exponent of the nonlinear contact force model was determined to match the overall acceleration pulse shape and magnitude. The model can be used to determine ${\Delta}Vs$ and peak accelerations for the purpose of accident reconstruction and for injury biomechanics studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.72-80
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• 2008

In a case of an automobile collision, vehicle damage and injury of the driver and the passenger occur. The scale of the collision which is effected by the extent of vehicle damage and the injury of the passenger, depends on the delta-V. Based on the photograph interpretation o the actual case of accidents in the Seoul and the Incheon area, this study measured the depth of crush and calculated the delta-V. Through verifying the correlation of the depth of crush and the change of velocity, relative equation was evaluated and compared with the prior study results to prove that they are almost identical. Thus, the depth of crush can be used as an index of the degree of impact, which can be utilized as the change of velocity to evaluate the level of injury done to the passengers. However, the period of hospitalization and diagnostics claimed by the injured proves to have no correlation with the delta-V and the extent of vehicle damage, this is due to the non-objective way of diagnosis and the anamnesis of the injured. This study established the absolute limit harmlessness and the choosing limit harmlessness, allowing the appraisal for Yes or No of the injury or the harmlessness based on the prior studies. Moreover, utilizing the relative equation formed between the depth of crush and the delta-V, each case of collision was compared and evaluated in comparison to the limit harmlessness to prove that the 90.4% of the so-called 'claiming-to-be-injured' were exaggerating or fabricating.

• Journal of the Korean Data and Information Science Society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.797-807
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• 2009

In a case of an automobile rear-end collision, scale of the collision which are the extent of vehicle damage and the injury of the passenger is affected by the speed change. Based on the photographic interpretation of the actual accident cases in the Seoul and the Incheon area, this study measured the depth of crush and calculated the speed change from the statement data of the accident and speed, and also injury data such as diagnosis, hospitalization days are collected. The period of hospitalization and diagnostics claimed proves to have no statistical correlation with the depth of vehicle crush and speed change. Based on the statistical analysis from this study and previous foreign studies, we found that there have been 78.1% of personal accidents didn't reach the injury threshold. There should be objective information on the scale of accident accepting the claims-to-be-injured in the future, and application of injury threshold level suggested are considered to be very useful.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.104-110
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• 2009

In this driving simulation study, the impairing effects of various types of electronic devices usage(i. e., destination search by using in-vehicle navigation system, TV watching and dialing cellular phone) during driving on front-to-rear-end collision avoidance were investigated. Percentage of collisions, driving speeds when the drivers collided, and initial reaction time for collision avoidance were analyzed and compared as the dependent measures. The results indicated that (1) any types of electronic devices usage during driving induced more serious collision-related impairment than control condition where no additional task was required, and (2) in general, destination search task appeared to impair drivers collision avoidance performance more than the other task requirements in terms of percentage of collisions and initial reaction time for collision avoidance, but TV watching induced most serious collision impact. These results suggested that any types of electronic device usage could distract drivers attention from the primary task of driving, and be resulted in serious outcome in potentially risky situation of front-to-rear-end collision. In particular, mandatory use of eye-hand coordination and receiving feedback seemed to one of essential factor leading the drivers visual attentional distraction.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.4 no.2
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• pp.37-43
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• 2012

The purpose of this research is to obtain and analyze dynamic responses from human volunteers for the development of the human-like mechanical or mathematical model for Korean males in automotive rear collisions. This paper focused on the introduction to a low-speed rear impact sled test involving Korean male subjects, and the accumulation of the motion of head and neck. A total of 50 dynamic rear impact sled tests were performed with 50 human volunteers, who are 30-50 year-old males. Each subject can be involved in only one case to prevent any injury in which he was exposed to the impulse that was equivalent to a low-speed rear-end collision of cars at 5-8 km/h for change of velocity, so called, ${\Delta}V$. All subjects were examined by an orthopedist to qualify for the test through the medical check-up of their necks and low backs prior to the test. The impact device is the pendulum type, tuned to simulate the crash pulse of a real vehicle. All motions and impulses were captured and measured by motion capture systems and pressure sensors on the seat. Dynamic responses of head and T1 were analyzed in two cases(5 km/h, 8 km/h) to compare with the results in the previous studies. After the experiments, human subjects were examined to check up any change in the post medical analysis. As a result, there was no change in MRI and no injury reported. Six subjects experienced a minor stiffness on their back for no more than 2 days and got back to normal without any medical treatment.

• International Journal of Highway Engineering
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.151-158
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• 2009

This study deals with the rear-end collisions in the rural aiea. The objectives of this study are 1) to analyze the characteristics of rear-end accidents of signalized intersections, and 2) to develop the accident models for Cheongju-Cheongwon. In pursing the above, this study gives the particular attentions to comparing the characters of urban and rural area. In this study, the dependent variables are the number of accidents and value of EPDO(equivalent property damage only), and independent variables are the traffic volumes and geometric elements. The main results analyzed are the followings. First, the statistical analyses show that the Poisson accident model using the number of accident as a dependant variable are statistically significant and the negative binomial accident model using the value of EPDO are statistically significant. Second, the independent variables of Poisson model are analyzed to be the ratio of high-occupancy vehicles, total traffic volume and the sum of exit/entry, and those of negative binomial regression are the main road width, total traffic volume and the ratio of high-occupancy vehicles. Finally, the specific independent variables to the rural area are the main road width, the ratio of high occupancy vehicle, and the sum exit/entry.