ASPECTS REGARDING THE ANALYSIS OF THE CAR GEOMETRY

Abstract

Worldwide, the road traffic accidents resulted injuries represent one of the top major factors to reduce life expectancy. Statistical analysis reports show that, while the general trend in some industrialized regions is to reduce the effects of traffic accidents by the means of imposing programs involving the car manufacturers, the research institutions and the society (i.e. APROSYS and PReVENT for E.U.), for the regions under development there is room for improvement in this area. In example, for E.U. member state Romania, the percentage of pedestrian casualties of all road traffic victims not only surpasses several times the mean value for the European Union, but is also having an increase trend, thus creating the need for developing new solutions in the field of pedestrian protection, or improving the ones that are already taken into consideration. When regarding the vehicle to pedestrian accident from a systemic point of view of a Haddon matrix, the frontal body design can be identified crossing the vehicle as factor with the main collision as event phase. Along with other body design components, the vehicle frontal geometry plays an important role on the dynamics and outcome of traffic accidents involving pedestrians. The manuscript outlines the connection between the variation of several vehicle geometrical parameters and the injury severity and its distribution on pedestrians.