Citation

States JD, Hight PV. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1982; 26: 37-51.

Affiliation

University of Rochester School of Medicine, Department of Orthopaedics, Rochester, NY, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1982, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper is presented because accurate data concerning impact velocity and deceleration could be derived from environmental findings and related to the injury tolerance of the human femur. A 55 year-old man fell 9.4 m from the top of a ladder and landed on bermuda grass sod and adobe clay. His initial and most severe injury was an open comminuted fracture of his right femur caused by impact of his flexed knee with the ground. His impact velocity was 13 m/s, virtually identical to the barrier impact velocity required of motor vehicles by the United States Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards. The ground which he impacted provided significant energy absorption and load distribution, perhaps superior to that provided by the interiors of automobiles for unrestrained occupants.