Case study of a low-velocity pedestrian accident

A case study of a minitruck-to-pedestrian accident is presented in which the pedestrian was impacted by the minitruck’s corner at a low velocity. Although the pedestrian was struck on his back, he landed on his back on the ground. There were two arc-shaped sites of subcutaneous haemorrhage indicated on his back. On the basis of an animal experiment, it was shown that haemorrhage in the soft tissue depends on the impactor shape. By detailed examination of the subcutaneous haemorrhage sites on the pedestrian’s back, the markings reflected the shape and dimensions of the truck’s windshield wiper. A mathematical simulation and an experiment involving a minitruck collision into a pedestrian dummy were conducted to determine the kinematics when a pedestrian is impacted by the corner of a truck. It was shown that the pedestrian rotated around his vertical axis according to the curvature of the truck corner. Although this is a case study, this accident provides useful knowledge for research on vehicle-pedestrian collisions.