Biomechanical Response of Upper Limb Fracture in Real-World Truck-to-Pedestrian Accident Using THUMS (Version 4.0)

Upper limb fracture is easily found in the truck-to-pedestrian road traffic accident. And it is important to understand and elucidate the biomechanics of upper limb fractures caused by the frontal structure of the truck. Finite element (FE) analysis could potentially help in the understanding the biomechanical response mechanism of upper limb fracture. In this study, THUMS (Total Human Model for Safety) was applied to reconstruct the upper limb fracture in a real-world truck-to-pedestrian accident. Totally two FE simulations were conducted to find out the most likely scenario in this case. Analyzing the simulations of two possible scenarios clearly demonstrated that the simulation result of collision-to-left scenario was consistent with the autopsy finding, and bending mechanism could explain how the upper limb fracture occurs. Then we drew a conclusion that FE analysis is a valuable method for us to understand the biomechanical mechanism of upper limb fracture in the forensic practice.