Essential factors leading to a traumatic brain injury during low-speed fender vault pedestrian impacts

Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) is the most common cause of serious and fatal injuries in car-to-pedestrian accidents. We used finite element models to perform a series of low-speed fender vault pedestrian impact simulations with the aim of reconstructing the primary impact phase and the final event of ground contact. We found that when compared to a sedan, a sport utility vehicle more aggressively increased the potential severity of TBI (P ˂ 0.05). In a low-speed collision, a medium level of braking deceleration (0.6 g) was found to significantly better protect the pedestrian's head when compared with low (0.3 g) and high (0.9 g) brake pulses (P ˂ 0.05), suggesting that a reasonable vehicle-to-pedestrian mechanical interaction is required to achieve a soft landing during the ground impact phase. The vehicle front-end design and proper brake deceleration control are essential contributors to a reduced TBI risk in low-speed fender vault pedestrian impact cases.