AIS1
neck injuries are the most frequent disabling
injuries among car occupants in road traffic accidents. Although
neck injury is mostly regarded as resulting from rear end collisions, almost one third of all
neck injuries occur in frontal impacts. Several studies have shown the effect of
airbags on injury and fatality rates. However, studies of the effect of
airbags on the risk of
injuries to different body regions are rare.
Airbags and seatbelt pretensioners may influence especially the risk of
neck injuries. This paper presents influence of
airbags and pretensioners on reported
neck injury risk in frontal impacts. Cars fitted with
airbags in combination with pretensioners and cars without have been analysed. Since 1992, approximately 150,000 vehicles on the Swedish market have been equipped with crash pulse recorders to measuring frontal impacts. This study includes results from 158 frontal impacts, where the crash pulses have been recorded using crash pulse recorders and where the status of airbag deployments was known. Only reported
neck injuries, often denoted as short-term disability to the neck, were considered in this study. Injury risk functions for cars with and without
airbags versus change of velocity and mean and peak accelerations were analysed. It was found that
airbags in combination with
seat belt pretensioners reduced the number of AIS1
neck injuries in frontal impacts with 41% +/- 15.2%. In impacts at a change of velocity between 1 and 30 km/h,
airbags and pretensioners was found to reduce the
neck injury risk with 59% +/- 18.6%.