Evaluating Injuries in Cyclist–Car Accidents using Conventional Dummies and Human Body Models

The study aimed to develop a workflow to simulate and analyse injury patterns in cyclist-to-car crash scenarios. The workflow is used to understand if initial analyses developed with conventional anthropometric test devices (ATDs) are enough to realistically assess injuries, or whether virtual simulations with human body models (HBMs) are required. Finite element models, combined with multi-body simulations, were implemented in MADYMO to study a lateral-frontal bicycle-car crash scenario. State-of-the-art ATD and HBM, both passive and active, were used to predict injury responses. To demonstrate broader applicability, the workflow was also used for early-stage safety-device evaluation. A simple deformable foam padding concept was introduced in virtual simulation and assessed for its ability to reduce tibial loading, illustrating the method’s relevance for protectivesystem design. Virtual simulations showed that ATD and HBM have substantially different injury metrics and impact kinematics. Findings indicate that ATDs alone cannot capture key biomechanical behaviours relevant to common accident scenarios. Active HBMs enhance biofidelity, particularly in head and neck kinematics, and provide a more biofidelic basis for assessing injuries in vulnerable road users scenarios. The main insight of the research is that HBMs offer substantial benefits for evaluating cyclists’ accident scenarios if compared with ATDs.