Comparison of delta-v and occupant impact velocity crash severity metrics using event data recorders.

Abstract

This research compares the ability of delta-V and the occupant impact velocity (OIV), a competing measure of crash severity, to predict occupant injury in real world collisions. A majority of the analysis is performed using 191 cases with vehicle kinematics data from Event Data Recorders (EDRs) matched with detailed occupant injury information. Cumulative probability of injury risk curves are generated using binary logistic regression for all data, a belted subset, and an unbelted subset. By comparing the available fit statistics and performing a separate ROC curve analysis, the more computationally intensive OIV is found to offer no significant predictive advantage over delta-V.