Accident Research
Our research focuses on many aspects of injury prevention. One area focuses on studying the relationship between how cars are built and driven and the injuries that result from car crashes by working within the new field of “safety science” to facilitate better treatment of car crash patients to improve the overall safety features of cars.
The UM Accident Research Program has received funding since 1991. The study is currently being funded by the BMW North American Accident Research Program. The purpose of the study is to be able to understand how and why people get injured in motor vehicle crashes. The study investigates airbags, seatbelts, pretensioners, stability control, and Automatic Crash Notification. The Center’s Crash Study Team- a multidisciplinary research team including experts in bio-mechanical engineering, trauma medicine, automobile crash investigation, computers and epidemiology- collects information about car crash injuries and what causes them. Through real time data collection and analysis, the team is able to precisely describe the care process from point of impact to clinical outcome particularly for those involved in severe frontal, side and rollover impact automobile crashes. Data collection involves interviewing the participant and acquiring information about the vehicle. The participants are interviewed to obtain a description of how the accident occurred. At the time of the interview, permission to obtain the patient’s medical records and vehicle inspection are obtained. The crash investigator photographs and measures the vehicle and crash scene to attain a detailed idea of how the accident occurred. The patient’s medical records are compared with the damage that the vehicle sustained to determine how the patient’s injuries occurred. Once all the data is obtained, it is analyzed and reviewed with BMW of North America at a case review meeting. This research will help create techniques that can be used by automobile manufacturers and trauma centers throughout the country to better understand car crash injuries-and ultimately save lives.