Development of face surrogate for impact protection design for cyclist
Bicycle usage for exercise, recreation, and commuting to work in Australia shows that pedal cycling is the fourth most popular activity with 10.6% increase in participants between 2001 and 2007. As with other means of transport, accident and injury becomes common although mandatory bicycle helmet wearing has been introduced. The research aims to develop a face surrogate made of sandwich of rigid foam and rubber sheets to represent human facial bone under blunt impact. The facial surrogate will serve as an important test device for further development of facial-impact protection for cyclist. A test procedure was developed to simulate the energy of impact and record data to evaluate the effect of impact on facial bones. Drop tests were performed to establish a suitable combination of materials. It was found that the sandwich structure of rigid extruded-polystyrene foam (density of 40 kg/m with a pattern of 6-mm-holes), Neoprene rubber sponge, and Abrasaflex rubber backing, had impact characteristics comparable to that of human facial bone. In particular, the foam thickness of 30 mm and 25 mm was found suitable to represent human zygoma (cheekbone) and maxilla (upper-jaw bone), respectively. Keywords—Facial impact protection, face surrogate, cyclist, accident prevention
A BIOMECHANICAL FACE FOR THE HYBRID III DUMMY
This paper reviews the literature available on the biomechanics of facial impact response and previous anthropometric dummy faceform concepts for facial injury assessment. The general requirements for a biomechanically realistic faceform, developed from the literature, are given and the development of a simple structural modification to achieve this performance in a production head for the Hybrid III dummy is described.
Mechanisms of injury in competitive off-road bicycling.
OBJECTIVE
To describe the mechanisms of injury from crashes during competitive off-road bicycling (mountain biking) and to examine the type, location, and severity of the resulting injuries.


METHODS
We examined and interviewed all bicyclists injured while competing at 7 off-road bicycling events. Information regarding the direction of fall and the presence of a collision or mechanical failure was obtained, and the injury patterns were compared.


RESULTS
There were 97 injured riders, with a mean age of 28.3 years. Most victims were male (74%), and all cyclists wore helmets. Most injuries were minor and involved the extremities (70.5%). Injuries sustained from falling forward over the handlebars occurred more often than from falling to the side (65% vs 25%), tended to lead to injuries that were more severe (mean injury severity score [ISS] = 3.4 vs 1.7, P < .05), and produced more head and neck injuries (56% vs 8%, P < .05). Falls to the side generally led to a lower extremity injury (88% vs 57%, P < .05). Riders who were involved in collisions had injuries that were similar in severity and location to those of riders who had no collision.


CONCLUSIONS
These findings suggest that off-road bicyclists whose mechanism of injury involves falling forward over the handlebars are at risk for more severe injury, especially to the head and neck.