Citation

Blackbourne BD. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1977; 21: 347-355.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1977, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Each fatal traffic accidents in the United States is investigated by the police and a coroner or medical examiner who certifies the cause of death on a standard death certificate. There exists a potential for learning a great deal about the causes of vehicular crashes, the production of injuries and ways of reducing or preventing injuries through these investigations. Unfortunately, many of the investigations are not directed toward what can be learned to prevent another fatality and in many localities only selected traffic fatality victims are autopsied. By encouraging those involved in traffic death investigation to consider how each of the injuries occurred, and by correlating the injuries with contact points in the vehicle, considerable understanding can be obtained concerning the mechanism of injury production. Different patterns of injury can be demonstrated in front impact, side impact, rear impact, rollover and sideswipe crashes. By looking at the whole crash sequence, pre-crash causes, the vehicles as they collide, the injuries to occupants and emergency treatment, each of us involved in crash investigation can play some role in the prevention of crashes or in the reduction of injuries.