Patterns of Injury to Restrained Children in Side Impact Motor Vehicle Crashes

Abstract

In this study population, side impacts resulted in more injuries to the head, cervical spine, and chest. Knowledge of this pattern-the side impact syndrome-can help guide diagnosis, treatment, and prevention strategy.

Patterns of severe injury in pediatric car crash victims: Crash Injury Research Engineering Network database

“…Second, children in lateral crashes had strikingly increased ISS scores and decreased GCS scores as compared with those in frontal crashes. This confirmed and supports earlier work from Orzechowski and others [7,10]. In this study, the side-impact syndrome was described.…”

“…Thoracic injuries are associated with a high mortality, particularly in car crashes that occur in a remote environment. This observation supports prior work from a study by Orzechowski et al [7] with some new findings. In contrast to that study, which was performed on a smaller sample, ours did not find a statistically significant difference in cervical spine injuries in lateral-impact crashes.…”

“…The CIREN methodology has been described and validated in prior studies [5,7]. The CIREN links crash reconstruction with medical data to provide in-depth assessments of biochemical forces leading to injury.…”

“…Investigators photographed the vehicle's point of impact, its point of rest, intermediate trajectory points, physical evidence, and pertinent items of the permanent environment. The exterior of each vehicle was photographed, and postcrash vehicle dimensions for overall length, width, intrusion, maximum crush, and front and rear overhang were measured using a standardized procedure [3,5,7]. Occupant compartment intrusion was documented by measuring the displacement of interior surfaces.…”

Preventing motor vehicle crashes related spine injuries in children

“…[43] In the pediatric age group, the side impacts resulted in more injuries to the head, cervical spine, and chest than frontal impacts. [44] The Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety-Queensland (CARRS-Q), which analyzed over 30 000 Victorian crash records from 1993 to 2004, concluded that in a traffic crash, the risk of fatality for children aged 0-12 years was twice as high for children in the front seat compared to children in the back seat. [45] In contrast to forward-facing car seat (FFCS), a rear-facing car seat (RFCS) supports the child's head, preventing the relatively large head from loading the proportionately smaller neck.…”