A retrospective study in understanding 'low speed change' vehicle collisions, occupant movement and likelihood of injury
type: CreativeWork
description: The number of reported minor injury cases resulting from road traffic collisions appearing before the courts in the United Kingdom was in excess of 500,000 in 2007. Over 430,000 of the claims presented to the Courts were for ‘whiplash’ injuries. Whilst whiplash is in fact a mechanism for injury and it is acknowledged that the term almost exclusively relates to soft tissue injury. The United Kingdom is referred to as the whiplash capital of Europe, with 75% of personal injury claims being for whiplash. The cost to the NHS for consultation fees etc for treating whiplash injuries is approximately £8 million annually. It has been felt for some time that the number of reported injury cases cannot all be legitimate. There is a large number which falls under the category of ‘Insurance Fraud’. Such is the problem that the Transport Select Committee has been considering how to tackle it now for a number of months. The applicant has personally provided assistance to the Chair of the Committee. The question: ‘How do experts assist in determining the legitimacy of individual cases?’ has been addressed by this study. The research in this thesis (which consisted of both full scale crash testing and simulator testing) is based on a simplification of both the classification and understanding of low speed change collisions. Rather than considering a threshold below which individuals are not injured, it was felt that classification would be a much simpler way of defining the nature and magnitude of specific cases when comparing occupant acceleration in collisions with accelerations encountered in daily activity. Indeed, such an approach could also lead to less conflict with the legal system where the two disciplines meet, especially since the expert must not usurp the duty of the Court. It was initially considered that there must be a threshold (i.e. a speed change) below which injury cannot occur to motor vehicle occupants. Indeed, this has been the position of some insurers and res…
abstract: The number of reported minor injury cases resulting from road traffic collisions appearing before the courts in the United Kingdom was in excess of 500,000 in 2007. Over 430,000 of the claims presented to the Courts were for ‘whiplash’ injuries. Whilst whiplash is in fact a mechanism for injury and it is acknowledged that the term almost exclusively relates to soft tissue injury. The United Kingdom is referred to as the whiplash capital of Europe, with 75% of personal injury claims being for whiplash. The cost to the NHS for consultation fees etc for treating whiplash injuries is approximately £8 million annually. It has been felt for some time that the number of reported injury cases cannot all be legitimate. There is a large number which falls under the category of ‘Insurance Fraud’. Such is the problem that the Transport Select Committee has been considering how to tackle it now for a number of months. The applicant has personally provided assistance to the Chair of the Committee. The question: ‘How do experts assist in determining the legitimacy of individual cases?’ has been addressed by this study. The research in this thesis (which consisted of both full scale crash testing and simulator testing) is based on a simplification of both the classification and understanding of low speed change collisions. Rather than considering a threshold below which individuals are not injured, it was felt that classification would be a much simpler way of defining the nature and magnitude of specific cases when comparing occupant acceleration in collisions with accelerations encountered in daily activity. Indeed, such an approach could also lead to less conflict with the legal system where the two disciplines meet, especially since the expert must not usurp the duty of the Court. It was initially considered that there must be a threshold (i.e. a speed change) below which injury cannot occur to motor vehicle occupants. Indeed, this has been the position of some insurers and res…
author: Henderson, Brian John
language: en
date published: 2012-09
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:35:38Z
provider: University of Central Lancashire
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Central Lancashire