Event Data Recorders (EDR) Prove Injury Risk

Event Data Recorders (EDR) Prove Injury Risk

Event data recorders (EDRs) are similar to “black boxes” in airplanes, as they record information in the event of a highway collision. Of particular interest to this study was the EDRs ability to record the vehicle velocity profile during a collision event (Gabauer & Gabler, 2008).

The purpose of this study was to use EDR data to compare the effectiveness of the OIV (Occupant Impact Velocity) and ASI (Acceleration Severity Index) and to compare these metrics to the standard crash severity metric, delta-V. The study found that the more computationally intensive OIV and ASI offer no statistically significant advantage over the simpler delta-V crash severity metric in discriminating between serious and non-serious occupant injury (Gabauer & Gabler, 2008). Delta-v continues to be the best measurement of injury risk in real world collisions.

The most important aspect of the study states, “Belted occupants have very different kinematics than unbelted occupants” (Gabauer & Gabler, 2008, p. 557). This has major clinical implications, as although EDRs show the forces necessary for injury have occurred (Delta-v), how they exert their physics on the occupant takes a proper trauma oriented work up, correlating bodily injury with demonstrative evidence and persistent functional loss.

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Reference:

Gabauer, D. J., & Gabler, H. C. (2008). Comparison of roadside crash injury metrics using event data recorders. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 40(2), 548-558.