Assessment of child safety on bicycles in baby carriers – The importance of evaluating both head and neck injuries

• Published in: Journal of safety research 2023-06, Vol.85, p.254-265
• Main Authors: Ptak, Mariusz, Wilhelm, Johannes, Sawicki, Marek, Dymek, Mateusz, Fernandes, Fábio A.O., Kristen, Helmuth, Garatea, Emma
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Accident reconstruction; Adult; Bicycle child seat; Bicycling - injuries; Child; Craniocerebral Trauma - etiology; Craniocerebral Trauma - prevention & control; Cyclist; Head and neck injuries; Head Protective Devices; Helmet; Humans; Infant; Parents; Protective Devices; Traffic safety
• ISSN: 0022-4375; 1879-1247
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2023.02.009

•The bicycle fall-over experiments and numerical simulations, with a 3-year-old child dummy in a bicycle seat, enabled the authors to have an insight into the child’s kinematics, head accelerations and neck bending.•We highlighted the importance of neck bending injuries during bicycle fall over, which are often neglected in the vulnerable road user safety assessment.•We concluded that assessing only the acceleration of the head and the head injury criterion (HIC) values may lead to false and even hazardous decisions of not wearing a helmet. Introduction: The paper addresses an important accident type that involves children in bicycle seats – the bicycle fall over. It is a significant and common accident type and many parents have been reported to experience this type of “close call.” The fall over occurs at low velocities and even while a bicycle is standing still, and may result from a split-second lack of attention on behalf of the accompanying adult (e.g. while loading groceries, i.e. while not being exposed to traffic per se). Moreover, irrespective of the low velocities involved, the trauma that may result to the head of the child is considerable and may be life-threatening, as shown in the study. Method: The paper presents two methods to address this accident scenario in a quantitative way: in-situ accelerometer-based measurement and numerical modeling approaches. It is shown that the methods produce consistent results under the prerequisites of the study. They are therefore promising methods to be used in the study of this type of accident. Results: The importanance of the protective role of a child helmet is without discussion in everyday traffic.However, this study draws attention to one particular effect observed in this accident type: that the geometry of the helmet may at times expose the child's head to considerably larger forces, by having contact with the ground. The study also highlights the importance of neck bending injuries during bicycle fall over, which are often neglected in the safety assessment – not only for children in bicycle seats. The study concludes that considering only head acceleration may lead to biased conclusions about using helmets as protective devices.