UMTRI Project

Estimating Infant Head Injury Criteria and Impact Response

Sponsor: General Motors
Investigator: Kathleen DeSantis Klinich
11/01/1997 - 03/31/2000

A unique mechanism of infant death in motor-vehicle crashes developed in the mid 1990’s. In relatively minor frontal impacts, infants have sustained serious head injuries while restrained in rear-facing child restraint systems (CRS) that were loaded by deploying passenger-side airbags. This study combined finite element modeling (FEM) and physical reconstructions of infant head injury scenarios to investigate infant head impact response and skull fracture tolerance. FEM supplemented the results from reconstruction testing to examine the role of cranial sutures on infant skull response and to estimate stresses associated with infant skull fracture. The project also involved assessment of the ability of the current CRABI anthropomorphic test device (ATD) to evaluate safety countermeasures for infants.