The effect of leg fracture on pedestrian kinematic response and injury severity in car–pedestrian collisions

This study aims to clarify the relationship between pedestrian leg bone fracture, the head, chest, abdomen and pelvis kinematic responses, and knee joint injury severity in car-pedestrian collisions, based on a coupled FE model with two scenarios: leg bone fracture and non-fracture. It finds leg fractures cause abdominal and pelvic upward Z-axis shifts, reduce knee ligament elongation rates and reduce femur/tibia peak bending moment, but have no significant effects on head and chest kinematics and injuries. This study demonstrates that kinematic responses of abdomen and pelvis and knee injury severity are significantly influenced by leg fracture.