Morphing Cars Could Save the Lives of the Pedestrians They Hit

Researchers in the automotive industry start to focus their efforts on the safety of pedestrians as well, rather than continuing to laden the inside of vehicles with numerous safety features, such as seat belts, airbags and automatic driver-assist systems. The concern is caused by the fact that even collisions that take place at speeds lower than 19 kilometers per hour often result in deaths or severe injuries for the pedestrians.

According to statistics, some 3,400 pedestrians are injured or killed in car accidents in the United States alone, while about the same number suffer the same faith in Europe. Fatal crashes in 30 percent of cases involve those who are rammed with a car impacting the windshield or its frame with their heads, which often results in their deaths. Primary impact places, such as those in the lower legs or the knees, usually result just in broken legs, but if the pedestrians are lifted on the hood, the chances of them hitting the window become overwhelming.

 

NewScientist reports that one of the newest pedestrian-oriented safety features proposed by Roger Hardy, an expert from Cranfield University’s Impact Centre, involves a morphing hood, which experts envision mounted as a standard feature on future cars. When the automobile detects that a person is about to be hit, it instantly raises the back side of the hood, and releases a giant airbag, which covers the entire windshield. This type of proactive measure could significantly reduce the amount of fatal injuries associated with car accidents.

 

Still, concerns exist as to what will happen to the person that is hit. While the risk of them dying due to windshield impact decreases, they are not out of the woods afterwards, when they risk “bouncing off” the giant airbag, and falling on the road, or maybe even on the other lanes, where cars are coming in from the opposite direction. If the new safety features have such an effect, than all their benefits will be instantly outweighed.

 

The Integrated Project on Advanced Protection Systems (APROSYS) system was funded by the European Union, and researchers from all over Europe were involved in its development. A prototype of the hood was mounted on a Fiat Stillo, and crash tests with dummies revealed the fact that Hardy's hood was able to significantly reduce the risk of fatal injuries from 1000 points on the Head Impact Criterion (HIC) scale to between 234 and 682, depending on the dummy's position relative to the car.