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In order to improve the protection of children transported in cars, within the CHILD programme (GR3D-CT2002-00791) real world road accidents are thoroughly analysed and then reconstructed in laboratory. Prior to comparing injury severities of real victims to physical parameter values measured on the dummies, the quality of the reconstructions is evaluated by experts who use their experience based on the investigation of numerous and various accidents. This paper presents a new tool aiming at better evaluating and validating accident reconstructions. It is based on statistical evaluation of vehicle deformations which gives weighing factors for every part of the car body structure finally leading to a specific Reconstruction Quality Score (RQS indicator). Furthermore, the reliability of this score, depending on the number of measured points, can be established. This tool includes a function aiming at adjusting the speed for a further reconstruction and at defining the launching speed and the pulse shape for complementary sled tests. Finally, the functions of the RQS software and database are presented.
Bone fracture patterns could be crucial in reconstructing the nature of loading, especially in the lower limb and upper limb kinematics in vehicle-pedestrian crashes. In addition, use of FE bone models can be a handy tool to predict vehicle impact velocity and the impact direction. The point of fracture initiation in bone loading has been predicted quite accurately earlier. A methodology that predicts bone crack initiation and its propagation pattern for the six known loading directions using a single material and failure model is presented.
Die Europäische Kommission strebt an, die Zahl der im Straßenverkehr Getöteten in der EU bis zum Jahr 2010 zu halbieren, unter anderem durch den Einsatz von fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystemen. Ziel der vorliegenden Studie ist es, die spezifischen Rahmenbedingungen in Deutschland für die mögliche Einführung eines fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystems zu analysieren und eine darauf abgestimmte Umsetzungsempfehlung zu erarbeiten. Methodik: Im Rahmen einer deskriptiven Analyse werden einerseits die deutschen Rahmenbedingungen bezüglich der Straßenverkehrsunfälle sowie der Strukturen und Leistungen des Rettungsdienstes erfasst. Andererseits werden Anforderungen an fahrzeuggestützte Notrufsysteme formuliert und die bestehenden Systemlösungen untersucht. Nach einer Klassifikation der möglichen Systemvarianten werden zwei ausgewählte Systemvarianten mit der Methodik der gesundheitsökonomischen Evaluation (Kosten-Wirksamkeits-Analyse) aus gesellschaftlicher Sicht analysiert. Zur qualitativen Bewertung wird eine Nutzwertanalyse mittels einer Befragung verschiedener Interessengruppen durchgeführt. Ergebnis: Je nach betrachteter Systemvariante und Ausgestaltungsform entstehen Kosten (inklusive Kosteneinsparungen) in Höhe von 1,5 bis 5,5 Milliarden Euro für die Gesellschaft. Werden diese Kosten auf die mit eCall ausgestatteten Fahrzeuge verteilt, ergeben sich rechnerisch pro Fahrzeug Kosten in Höhe von 47 bis 168 Euro. Diesen stehen im Betrachtungszeitraum von zehn Jahren 390 bis 438 gerettete Personen und eine Reduktion der Anzahl der Schwerverletzten um 11.879 bis 13.364 entgegen. Lediglich bei der kostengünstigsten Ausgestaltungsform des eCall-Systems im Fahrzeug als integrierte Lösung können die Kosteneinsparungen die Kosten für die Gesellschaft übersteigen. Unter monetär bewerteten Kosten- und Nutzengesichtspunkten aus gesamtgesellschaftlicher Perspektive kommt der organisatorischen Ausgestaltungsform des Systems (zentral/dezentral) keine Bedeutung zu. Im Rahmen der Nutzwertanalyse konnte bei den unterschiedlichen Interessengruppen keine eindeutige Präferenz für eine der Systemvarianten festgestellt werden. Die Vertreter der Automobilindustrie, der Medizin, der Politik/Gesellschaft, des Rettungsdienstes und der Wissenschaft bevorzugen die Systemvariante, bei der die Erstbearbeitung der Notrufe in den dezentral organisierten Rettungsleitstellen erfolgt. Die Vertreter der Automobil-Zulieferindustrie, der Serviceprovider und der Versicherungen ziehen die Systemvariante vor, die auf einer zentralen Erstbearbeitung der Notrufe beruht. Fazit: Die Einführung eines fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystems in Deutschland ist mit hohen gesellschaftlichen Kosten verbunden, die in der Basisbetrachtung mit realistischen Annahmen deutlich über dem monetär bewerteten Nutzenpotenzial liegen. In der vorliegenden Evaluation wird deutlich, dass Kosteneinsparungen für die Gesellschaft auch bei optimistischen Nutzenannahmen in Bezug auf die Wirksamkeit zur Reduzierung der Getöteten und Schwerverletzten im Straßenverkehr nur bei den kostengünstigsten Varianten von fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystemen realisierbar sind. Im Rahmen dieser Studie kann deshalb für die europaweite Einführung von fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystemen nur die kostengünstigere Variante empfohlen werden, die in den Fahrzeugen bereits vorhandene Module (zum Beispiel GNSS-Systeme und das Mobilfunktelefon der Insassen) einbezieht. Eine freiwillige Markteinführung der Systeme würde dazu führen, dass eCall-Systeme insbesondere dann in Fahrzeugen integriert werden, wenn dafür geringe Mehrkosten anfallen oder wenn Risikogruppen ihren Nutzen besonders hoch einschätzen. Bei einem derartigen Implementierungsszenario würden damit die Kosten, die den Systemen zuzurechnen sind, sinken, da vorhandene Technik im Fahrzeug genutzt wird. Bei einer freiwilligen Einführung von fahrzeuggestützten Notrufsystemen in Deutschland wird letztlich der Nutzer über den Erfolg von eCall entscheiden.
In der vorliegenden Multicenterstudie wurde eine prospektive Befragung von Verkehrsunfallopfern, die sich zur stationären Behandlung in einem Akutkrankenhaus befanden, durchgeführt. Ziel der Untersuchung war es insbesondere, Informationen zur Häufigkeit psychischer Auffälligkeiten infolge von Verkehrsunfällen zu gewinnen und Faktoren zu eruieren, die die Entwicklung psychischer Beschwerden im Sinne von Schutz- oder Risikofaktoren beeinflussen. Die Befragung der Verunfallten erfolgte zu drei Messzeitpunkten: Beginn der stationären Behandlung (T1, n=226), bei Entlassung aus der Klinik (T2, n=20) und sechs bis zwölf Monate nach dem Unfall (T3, n=189; T1+T3, n=160). Die Datenerhebung erfolgte mittels Interview, Fragebogen und Auszügen aus der Patientenakte. Prävalenz psychischer Auffälligkeiten: In der untersuchten Stichprobe ergibt sich eine Auffälligkeitsrate von etwa 25%: Jedes vierte Unfallopfer leidet unter ernstzunehmenden psychischen Beschwerden (Angst oder Depression oder PTBS). Bei dem Großteil der Betroffenen sind die psychischen Symptome persistierend. Patientinnen und Patienten mit psychischen Vorbelastungen sind besonders häufig betroffen. Risiko- und Schutzfaktoren: Hinsichtlich der untersuchten prätraumatischen Faktoren (allgemeinen Zufriedenheit, aktuellen und vorangegangenen Belastungen; Kompetenz- und Kontrollüberzeugungen; soziale Unterstützung) scheint der Großteil der Patientinnen und Patienten gute Voraussetzungen mitzubringen, um den erlebten Verkehrsunfall psychisch gut zu bewältigen. Ein jeweils kleinerer Anteil erlangt in den angewandten Testverfahren jedoch auffällige Werte. Diese Unfallopfer sind als Risikopatientinnen und -patienten anzusehen, d.h. die Wahrscheinlichkeit, infolge des Unfalls psychisch zu erkranken, ist bei ihnen erhöht. Als besonders bedeutsam scheinen hierbei aktuelle und frühere Belastungen, geringe internale und hohe externale Kontrollüberzeugungen sowie eine Abnahme der erlebten sozialen Unterstützung im Laufe des Jahres nach dem Unfall zu sein. Als peritraumatische Faktoren wurden die Rahmenbedingungen des Unfalls und das Erleben des Unfallgeschehens sowie peritraumatische Dissoziation und Belastung erhoben. In der Zusammenschau der Ergebnisse kristallisiert sich ein Befund als wesentlich heraus, dem in vorherigen Untersuchungen noch kaum Aufmerksamkeit geschenkt wurde: Das Erleben von Hilflosigkeit während des Unfallgeschehens scheint bei der Entwicklung psychischer Auffälligkeiten eine zentrale Rolle zu spielen. Als posttraumatische Faktoren wurden u.a. Informationen zur Initialsymptomatik, der Verletzungsschwere, dem Behandlungsverlauf sowie der Krankheitsverarbeitung untersucht. In Einklang mit früheren Studien leiden Verunglückte mit einer auffälligen Initialsymptomatik (T1) ein Jahr nach dem Unfall (T3) signifikant häufiger unter ernstzunehmenden psychischen Beschwerden als Unfallofer, die zu T1 einen unauffälligen psychischen Befund haben. Die Verletzungsschwere, die Lokalisation der Verletzung und Behandlungsparameter scheinen im Hinblick auf die Entwicklung psychischer Auffälligkeiten hingegen keine Rolle zu spielen. Hinsichtlich der individuellen Krankheitsverarbeitung scheint ein depressiver Copingstil eher mit psychischen Beschwerden assoziiert zu sein als ein aktives problemorientieres Coping bzw. eine Krankheitsverarbeitung im Sinne von Ablenkung und Selbstaufbau. Vorhersage psychischer Auffälligkeiten: Es wurde eine binäre logistische Regression zur Vorhersage psychischer Auffälligkeiten (T3) durchgeführt. Drei der 12 Prädiktoren erweisen sich als signifikant: psychische Auffälligkeit zu T1, Verschlechterung der erlebten sozialen Unterstützung innerhalb des Follow-up-Zeitraums und psychische Vorbelastung (Psychotherapie innerhalb der letzten zwei Jahre oder psychische Vorerkrankung). Als Fazit kann aus den Studienergebnissen gezogen werden: - Ernstzunehmende psychische Beschwerden infolge von schweren Straßenverkehrsunfällen sind häufig. Es können Risikofaktoren benannt werden, die die Wahrscheinlichkeit erhöhen, infolge eines Unfalls psychisch zu erkranken: Vorliegen einer psychischen Initialsymptomatik, Erleben einer Verschlechterung der sozialen Unterstützung in den Monaten nach dem Unfall und/oder Bestehen einer psychischen Vorbelastung. - Die Relevanz weiterer Risikofaktoren (z.B. Hilflosigkeitsgefühle während des Unfallgeschehens) bedarf vertiefender Untersuchungen. Hieraus leitet sich ein Handlungsbedarf auf unterschiedlichen Ebenen ab. Zum Einen stehen die behandelnden Krankenhäuser in der Verantwortung, gefährdete Patientinnen und Patienten frühzeitig zu identifizieren und geeignete (präventive) Maßnahmen anzubieten. Zum Anderen besteht die Aufgabe im Rahmen der Verkehrssicherheitsarbeit die Thematik weiter publik zu machen und vertiefende Forschung zu unterstützen.
Der Vergleich der Ergebnisse aus drei von der Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (BASt) durchgeführten Studien ergab, dass keiner der bisher gewählten Ansätze optimal erscheint, um als Grundlage für eine langfristige Untersuchungsreihe zu schwerstverletzten Unfallopfern zu dienen. Dagegen verspricht die Verknüpfung der Daten des Traumaregisters der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Unfallchirurgie mit polizeilichen Unfalldaten einen Fortschritt. Somit könnten die Primärdaten zweier bereits etablierter Dokumentationssysteme für die künftige Untersuchung der Schwer(st)verletztenproblematik effizient genutzt werden. Zu einem ähnlichen Ergebnis kommt eine aktuelle Studie der Rheinisch-Westfälischen Hochschule Aachen und der Universitätsklinik Aachen aus dem Jahr 2009. Hierdurch wurde der viel versprechende Erkenntnisgewinn zur Verletzungsschwere und Verletzungsmustern belegt, der durch eine Zusammenführung der Daten der laut amtlicher Unfallstatistik Schwerstverletzten mit denjenigen der nach medizinischen Krankenakten ermittelten schweren Unfälle bestätigt.
The aim of this study is to investigate the differences in car occupant injury severity recorded in AIS 2005 compared to AIS 1990 and to outline the likely effects on future data analysis findings. Occupant injury data in the UK Cooperative Crash Injury Study Database (CCIS) were coded for the period February 2006 to November 2007 using both AIS 1990 and AIS 2005. Data for 1,994 occupants with over 6000 coded injuries were reviewed at the AIS and MAIS level of severities and body regions to determine changes between the two coding methodologies. Overall there was an apparent general trend for fewer injuries to be coded at the AIS 4+ severity and more injuries to be coded at the AIS 2 severity. When these injury trends were reviewed in more detail it was found that the body regions which contributed the most to these changes in severity were the head, thorax and extremities. This is one of the first studies to examine the implications for large databases when changing to an updated method for coding injuries.
Analysis of pedestrian leg contacts and distribution of contact points across the vehicle front
(2015)
Determining the risk to pedestrians that are impacted by areas of the front bumper not currently regulated in type-approval testing requires an understanding of the target population and the injury risk posed by the edges of the bumper. National statistics show that approximately 10% of all accident casualties are pedestrians, with 20% to 30% of these pedestrian casualties being killed or seriously injured. However, the contact position across the front of the bumper is not recorded in national statistics and so in-depth accident databases (OTS, UK and GIDAS, Germany) were used to examine injury risk in greater detail. The results showed that some injury types and severities of injuries appear to peak around the bumper edges. Although there are sometimes inconsistencies in the data, generally there is no evidence to suggest that the edges of the bumper are less likely to be contacted or cause injury.
Police records about traffic accidents like used by IRTAD (International Road Traffic and Accident Database) and CARE (Community Road Accident Database) do not represent all road injuries. For instance, road accidents of bicyclists without a counterpart are usually not reported. Furthermore, IRTAD-like data contains hardly any information on injury outcome and accident circumstances. This information gap leads to an under-representation of the safety concerns of the most vulnerable road users like children and the elderly both in accident research and safety promotion. Injury registration for the European Injury Database (IDB), in turn, combines details of accident causation with diagnostic information that can be used to assess injury severity and long term consequences. The IDB is collecting data from hospital emergency department patients and is being implemented in a growing number of countries. In this article IDB results on mode of transport and injury outcome are presented from a sample of nine EU member states.
It is well known that motorcycle riding is fascinating but quite more dangerous than for example car driving. In 2006, 5,091 persons were killed as victims of crashes occurring on public roads in Germany. 52% (2,683) were car occupants, 16% (793) motorcycle riders, 14% (711) pedestrians, 10% (486) bicycle riders, 5% (235) commercial vehicle occupants, 2% (107) riders of smaller powered two-wheelers, called "Mofa, Moped and Mokick". This shows that motorcycle riders recently are the second largest group of killed traffic participants in Germany. Latest information coming from the Federal Statistics predict for the year 2007 the figure of 4,958 killed road victims in total. This would be again a successful reduction (-133 killed persons or "2.6% compared to the year 2006). But the news coming from the Federal Statistics during the year 2007 and at the begin of 2008 did not always tell the same positive story. It is questioned whether the positive trend of substantially reduced figures of killed road user year by year will longer continue for Germany. That means it could be impossible to reach the ambitious target, set by the European Commission, to cut in half the figure of killed road users until the year 2010 " compared to the figure for the year 2001. It was reported that the group of 45 to 49 years old traffic participants (all traffic modes) is conspicuous with an increase of 30% up to 297 killed road users in total from January to August 2007. This increase can be ascribed in particular by an increase of killed motorcycle riders within this age group. Due to mild weather conditions in Germany in 2007 the season for motorcycle riding began relatively early and this may be a main reason for the increase of the figure of killed motorcycle riders by 16% from January to August 2007. With this background the accident occurrence of motorcycles became more and more essential. As part of the actual discussion about historical trends, recent emphases, causes and relevant structures of the events of motorcycle crashes it is evident, to have latest and carefully updated figures coming from both the Federal Statistics and In-depth studies. The paper will give a contribution to this using the German Federal Statistics and in-depth studies, for example GIDAS. Additional data coming from the DEKRA Motorcycle Accident Database as well as from literature are considered, too. The paper will help to describe the current situation of the accident involvement of motorcycles in Germany.
Ruptures and dissections of the thoracic and abdominal aortic vessel caused by traffic accidents are rare but potentially life-threatening injuries. They can occur by blunt trauma via seat belt or dashboard injury. The study aimed at evaluating the overall mortality, morbidity, neurological disorders, and differences in operative procedures of open repair and stenting. It shows that, with a change and improvement in diagnostic tools and surgical approach, mortality and morbidity of blunt aortic injuries were significantly reduced. Still an immediate life-threatening injury early diagnosis via multiple-slice and scans and surgical repair with minimally invasive stents showed excellent short-time results for selected patients.
Still correlated with high mortality rates in traffic accidents traumatic aortic ruptures were frequently detected in unprotected car occupants in the early years. This biomechanical analysis investigates the different kinds of injury mechanisms leading to traumatic aortic injuries in todays traffic accidents and how the way of traffic participation affects the frequency of those injuries over the years. Based on GIDAS reported traffic accidents from 1973 to 2014 are analyzed. Results show that traumatic aortic injuries are mainly observed in high-speed accidents with high body deceleration and direct load force to the chest. Mostly chest compression is responsible for the load direction to the cardiac vessels. The main observed load vector is from caudal-ventral and from ventral solely, but also force impact from left and right side and in roll-over events with chest compression lead to traumatic aortic injuries. Classically, the injury appeares at the junction between the well-fixed aortic arch and the pars decendens following a kind of a scoop mechanism, a few cases with a hyperflexion mechanism are also described. In our analysis the deceleration effect alone never led to an aortic rupture. Comparing the past 40 years aortic injuries shift from unprotected car occupants to today's unprotected vulnerable road users like pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Still the accident characteristics are linked with chest compression force under high speed impact, no seatbelt and direct body impact.
In Germany averagely two million traffic accidents happen each year and emergency medical services are called to more than 400 000 patients. Even though this number is decreasing continuously (due to improvements in the fields of vehicle safety, road construction, and accident prevention) every case is yet a challenge for the rescuers and requires improvements in emergency medicine as well. Especially during diagnostics right at the accident scene, there are only limited instruments available to gain the necessary knowledge of the injuries suffered, to come to essential decisions about treatment or transport. To provide an additional diagnostic aid by scouting and estimating the situation, a software-tool calculating the likeliness of the most frequent severe injuries (AIS 3-6) of front occupants in passenger cars has been developed to deliver this necessary information about particular accident scenarios. To achieve this, logistic likelihood functions have been calculated in a multivariate regression analysis analysing all AIS 3+ injuries in the GIDAS database of the years 1999-2006 that happened more than four times
An eCall device has been mounted on some vehicles in France since 2003. It is an integrated car radio/GSM/GPS system that can be used with a SIM card. When an accident occurs, a call can be sent manually or automatically made to a telephone call centre. Knowing the geographic location, the vehicle identity and the possibility of a direct communication with the people involved enables the nearest emergency services to be called out. In this context, the LAB / CEESAR have set up a study aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of this system. The purpose of this paper is to detail the E-call system evaluation method of effectiveness used and give a global synthesis of the results.
Mechanical properties of tibial bone at compressive strain rates of 50-200 s-1 are obtained through Split Hopkinson pressure bar. Cylindrical specimens of 12-15 mm diameter and 2-5 mm thickness were used. The Young- moduli are calculated from linear portion of stress-strain curves. For both cortical and cancellous part of the bones, the Young- modulus was found to increase with the increasing strain rates. Also for both cancellous and cortical bones the Young- modulus increases consistently with increase in densities.
Pedestrian and cyclist are the most vulnerable road users in traffic crashes. One important aspect of this study was the comparable analysis of the exact impact configuration and the resulting injury patterns of pedestrians and cyclists in view of epidemiology. The secondary aim was assessment of head injury risks and kinematics of adult pedestrian and cyclists in primary and secondary impacts and to correlate the injuries related to physical parameters like HIC value, 3ms linear acceleration, and discuss the technical parameter with injuries observed in real-world accidents based documented real accidents of GIDAS and explains the head injuries by simulated load and impact conditions based on PC-Crash and MADYMO. A subsample of n=402 pedestrians and n=940 bicyclists from GIDAS database, Germany was used for preselection, from which 22 pedestrian and 18 cyclist accidents were selected for reconstruction by initially using PC-Crash to calculate impact conditions, such as vehicle impact velocity, vehicle kinematic sequence and throw out distance. The impact conditions then were employed to identify the initial conditions in simulation of MADYMO reconstruction. The results show that cyclists always suffer lower injury outcomes for the same accident severity. Differences in HIC, head relative impact velocity, 3ms linear contiguous acceleration, maximum angular velocity and acceleration, contact force, throwing distance and head contact timing are shown. The differences of landing conditions in secondary impacts of pedestrians and cyclists are also identified. Injury risk curves were generated by logistic regression model for each predicting physical parameters.
Estimation of the benefits for the UK for potential options to modify UNECE Regulation No. 95
(2010)
The side impact problem in Europe remains substantial. UK data shows that between 22% and 26% of car occupant casualties are involved in a side impact, but this rises to between 29% and 38% for those who are fatally injured. This indicates the more injurious nature of side impacts compared with frontal impacts. The European Enhanced Vehicle safety Committee (EEVC) has performed work to address the side impact issue since 1979. As part of its continuing work, it has recently investigated potential options for regulatory changes to improve side impact protection in cars further. To support this work the UK undertook an analysis to estimate the benefit for potential options to modify UNECE Regulation 95. The analysis used the UK national STATS19 and detailed Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) accident databases. Of the potential options reviewed, it was found that the addition of a pole test offered the greatest benefit.
In North America, frontal crash tests in both the regulatory environment and consumer-based safety rating schemes have historically been based on full-width and moderate-overlap (40%) vehicle to barrier impacts. The combination of improved seat-belt technologies, notably belt tensioning and load limiting systems, together with advanced airbags, has proven very effective in providing occupant protection in these crash modes. Recently, however, concern has been raised over the contribution of narrower frontal impacts, involving primarily the vehicle corners, to the incidence of fatality and serious injury as a result of the potential for increased occupant compartment intrusion and performance limitations of current restraint systems. Drawing on data documented in the National Automotive Sampling System (NASS)/ Crashworthiness Data System (CDS) for calendar years 1999 to 2012, the present study examines the characteristics of existing and proposed corner crash test configurations, and the nature of real-world collisions that approximate the test environments. In this analysis, particular emphasis is placed on crash pulse information extracted from vehicle-based event data recorders (EDR's).
Introduction: The incidence of trauma-related cervical-spine fractures is 19-88 / 100.000. In contrast, the incidence of cervical spine injuries is as high as 19% - 51% of all spinal trauma. Cervical spine injuries in non-polytrauma patients are rare. However, due to the potential damage to the spinal cord these traumata are feared and mustn't be missed. Cervical spine injuries represent the highest reported early mortality rate of all spinal trauma. The rate of functional impairment afterwards is high and the rate of reintegration into work is low compared to other organ systems. In the past, trauma surgeons often did x-rays of the cervical spine with low inhibition threshold and often without strong clinical suggestion for vertebral or discoligamental injuries. This practice was queried by the Canadian C-Spine rule and extensively discussed in the past. Therefore we did a retrospective study whether non-polytrauma patients benefit from cervical spine x-rays.
While cyclists and pedestrians are known to be at significant risk for severe injuries when exposed to road traffic accidents (RTAs) involving trucks, little is known about RTA injury risk for truck drivers. The objective of this study is to analyze the injury severity in truck drivers following RTAs. Between 1999 and 2008 the Hannover Medical School Accident Research Unit prospectively documented 43,000 RTAs involving 582 trucks. Injury severity including the abbreviated injury scale (AIS) and the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) were analyzed. Technical parameters (e.g. delta-v, direction of impact), the location of accident, and its dependency on the road type were also taken into consideration. The results show that the safety of truck drivers is assured by their vehicles, the consequence being that the risk of becoming injured is likely to be low. However, the legs especially are at high risk for severe injuries during RTAs. This probability increases in the instance of a collision with another truck. Nevertheless, in RTAs involving trucks and regular passenger vehicles, the other party is in higher risk of injury.
Injury severity of e.g. pedestrians or bikers after crashes with cars that are reversing is almost unknown. However, crash victims of these injuries can frequently be seen in emergency departments and account for a large amount of patients every year. The objective of this study is to analyze injury severity of patients that were crashed into by reversing cars. The Hannover Medical School local accident research unit prospectively documented 43,000 road traffic accidents including 234 crashes involving reversing cars. Injury severity including the abbreviated injury scale (AIS) and the maximum abbreviated injury scale (MAIS) was analyzed as well as the location of the accident. As a result 234 accidents were included into this study. Pedestrians were injured in 141 crashes followed by 70 accidents involving bikers. The mean age of all crash victims was 57 -± 23 years. Most injuries took place on straight stretches (n = 81) as well as parking areas (n = 59), entries (n = 36) or crossroads (n = 24). The AIS of the lower extremities was highest followed by the upper extremities. The AIS of the neck was lowest. The mean MAIS was 1.3 -± 0.6. The paper concludes that the lower extremities show the highest risk to become injured during accidents with reversing cars. However, the risk of severe injuries is likely low.