Comparative analyses of bicyclists and motorcyclists in vehicle collisions focusing on head impact responses

Abstract

To investigate the differences of the head impact responses between bicyclists and motorcyclists in vehicle collisions. A series of vehicle–bicycle and vehicle–motorcycle lateral impact simulations on four vehicle types at seven vehicle speeds (30, 35, 40, 45, 50, 55 and 60 km/h) and three two-wheeler moving speeds (5, 7.5 and 10 km/h for bicycle, 10, 12.5 and 15 km/h for motorcycle) were established based on PC-Crash software. To further comprehensively explore the differences, additional impact scenes with other initial conditions, such as impact angle (0, π/3, 2π/3 and π) and impact position (left, middle and right part of vehicle front-end), also were supplemented. And then, extensive comparisons were accomplished with regard to average head peak linear acceleration, average head impact speed, average head peak angular acceleration, average head peak angular speed and head injury severity. The results showed there were prominent differences of kinematics and body postures for bicyclists and motorcyclists even under same impact conditions. The variations of bicyclist head impact responses with the changing of impact conditions were a far cry from that of motorcyclists. The average head peak linear acceleration, average head impact speed and average head peak angular acceleration values were higher for motorcyclists than for bicyclists in most cases, while the bicyclists received greater average head peak angular speed values. And the head injuries of motorcyclists worsened faster with increased vehicle speed. The results may provide even deeper understanding of two-wheeler safety and contribute to improve the public health affected by road traffic accidents.