Biomechanical study of traumatic asphyxia due to thoracic load

The purpose of the study was to determine the force-deflection characteristics of the chest of the human surrogate dummy during the loading typical of traumatic asphyxia conditions. The 5th percentile female Hybrid III and 50th percentile male Hybrid III anthropomorphic dummies were used. The vehicle rear bumper impacted the chest of the dummy at idle speed and was allowed to remain in contact with the chest. A total of 14 tests were conducted. The chest force was measured using the load cell and chest deflection was measured using the potentiometer. High-speed photography was used to collect the kinematics data of the dummy. The measured peak deflection was above the proposed injury assessment reference value for chest compression. The peak force was found to be injurious.