Injury and throwing distance in teenage cyclist- vehicle crash

The study of the injury caused by vehicle-teenage cyclist crash is presented in this paper. The results of the crash with three vehicles: sedan, SUV and Pick up are compared. Three different positions are analyzed: front, rear and lateral position. The injury on the cyclist head is examined by HIC criterion, in the way indicated by the rules. A comparison is done between the results of the simulations for Pick up, SUV and sedan, concluding that the injury of the head is more dangerous for Pick-up impact than SUV or the sedan, but only at greater speed than 40 km/h. Teenage cyclist is more likely to suffer an injury to the chest in rear impacts with the sedan, because 3 ms values remain above the values obtained with the SUV and Pick up. Unlike Pick up could cause greater injury to the chest in the front and side impact because of greater height from the ground. The vehicle mass has not great importance, but only to low speed. Consideration is made that teenage cyclist has a better chance of surviving in the front impact collision than adult pedestrian, because HIC values remain consistently below the determined values. A further comparison is done between the impact points of the three vehicles concluding that both the shape of the bonnet and the height of the front part must be studied carefully in order to reduce the damage to cyclists and pedestrians. At last the throwing distance are calculated and compared with the literature data, concluding that they are strongly dependent on the relative position.