Fahrzeugseitige Massnahmen zum Schutz des Kopfes eines Fussgängers: eine ganzheitliche Betrachtung

Pedestrians and bicyclists have the second highest priority at the accident scene regarding traffic fatalities. Only for car occupants the number of people killed in road accidents is higher. This paper shows the relevance of pedestrian safety against the background of international accident statistics. Additionally, German In-Depth accident analysis results were used to identify the main focus of the pedestrian-car-accident. Especially, the vehicle front as the main causer of injuries is analysed more In detail. For the assessment of a vehicle front as to pedestrian safety, there are two fundamental approaches to test passive safety abilities. This paper shows the advantages and disadvantages of the component test and the full-scale-test. The numerical simulation is introduced as an alternative approach. It's application to deduce fundamentals for a head protection system is shown. In this context, vehicle categories were established and an up-lifting hood was implemented so that certain kinematic parameters for various pedestrian-vehicle accident constellations can be linked to the head protection system. Against the background of basic characteristics of a head protection system, two technical solutions were introduced and discussed in more detail. This paper also shows the trade-off between legislative requirements and an integrated pedestrian safety approach.