Hazards arising during road accidents in cases of vehicle adaptation for the person with special needs

Abstract

Abstract Independent transport of people with special needs often requires the adaptation of a motorcar to increase the comfort of use and enable proper operating of a vehicle. This adaptation involves, for example, mounting special devices on the steering wheel. This violates the so-called survival zone, defined by (UN/ECE) regulation No. 21. and can deteriorate the occupant’s safety. This study shows the risk for the driver caused by an additional knob mounted on a steering wheel. Model tests were prepared and carried out with the use of the PC-Crash program environment. The simulations of the frontal collisions into the obstacle were computed and the dynamic loads affecting the driver with and without additional adaptation elements on the steering wheel were assessed. Obtained results portray that the impact of the driver’s head into the adaptation element during the collision is possible. This causes a visible increase in the HIC15 head injury indicator by up to 80% for a collision speed of 65 km/h compared to a car without an adaptation device. It was found that the risk of head injury is on average 15% greater compared to the variant without an adaptation device.