CURRENT SITUATION OF PEDESTRIAN ACCIDENTS AND RESEARCH INTO PEDESTRIAN PROTECTION IN JAPAN

Abstract

According to statistics on traffic accidents in Japan; (1) approximately 60% of four-wheel vehicles involved in pedestrian accidents are passenger cars; (2) 70% of the pedestrians involved are struck by the front of the vehicle; and (3) 50% of the fatalities are 65 year-olds or older. The proportion of elderly persons to the total number of pedestrian fatalities is expected to continue to increase. The findings from in-depth case studies of 113 pedestrian casualties show that: (1) the severity and location of the impact on the pedestrian depend upon the body size of the pedestrian and the shape of the front of the car; and (2) the parts of a car most important for pedestrian protection are the bumper, the hood edge, and the hood top. Parametric studies were performed by using full-scale sled tests and computer simulations. Important results of these studies are: (i) The shape of the front of the car, particularly the hood edge height, greatly influences the pedestrian kinematics after the impact; and (ii) the influence of the force-deformation characteristics of the front of the car upon the pedestrian kinematics appears to be small, compared to the dependence on the shape of the front of the car. For the covering abstract of the conference see IRRD 864606.