7Accident data have shown that in pedestrian accidents with high-fronted vehicles (SUVs and vans) the risk of pedestrian head 8 injuries from the contact with the ground is higher than with low-fronted vehicles (passenger cars). However, the reasons for this 9 remain poorly understood. This paper addresses this question using multibody modelling to investigate the influence of vehicle 10 front height and shape in pedestrian accidents on the mechanism of impact with the ground and on head ground impact speed. To 11 this end, a set of 648 pedestrian/vehicle crash simulations was carried out using the MADYMO multibody simulation software. 12 Impacts were simulated with six vehicle types at three impact speeds (20, 30, 40 km/h) and three pedestrian types (50 th % male, 13 5 th % female, and 6 yr old child) at six different initial stance configurations, stationary and walking at 1.4 m/s. 14 Six different ground impact mechanisms, distinguished from each other by the manner in which the pedestrian impacted the 15 ground, were identified. These configurations have statistically distinct and considerably different distributions of head-ground 16 impact speeds. Pedestrian initial stance configuration (gait and walking speed) introduced a high variability to the head-ground 17 impact speed. Nonetheless, the head-ground impact speed varied significantly between the different ground impact mechanisms 18 identified and the distribution of impact mechanisms was strongly associated with vehicle type. In general, impact mechanisms 19 for adults resulting in a head-first contact with the ground were more severe with high fronted vehicles compared to low fronted 20 vehicles, though there is a speed dependency to these findings. With high fronted vehicles (SUVs and vans) the pedestrian was 21 mainly pushed forward and for children this resulted in high head ground contact speeds. 22 23 Keywords 24Vehicle-pedestrian collision, Ground impact; Bonnet leading edge height; Head-ground impact speed; Ground impact 25 mechanism. 26 27 28 1 Corresponding author: Gianmarco Crocetta. Address:

This research is the first attempt to evaluate MAEB with simulations on a broad range of crash scenarios using in-depth data. The results give further insights into the feasibility of MAEB in different speed ranges. It is clear then that MAEB is a promising technology that warrants further attention by researchers, manufacturers, and regulators.

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Advanced driver assistance systems, ADAS, have shown the possibility to anticipate crash accidents and effectively assist road users in critical traffic situations. This is not the case for motorcyclists, in fact ADAS for motorcycles are still barely developed. Our aim was to study a camera-based sensor for the application of preventive safety in tilting vehicles. We identified two road conflict situations for which automotive remote sensors installed in a tilting vehicle are likely to fail in the identification of critical obstacles. Accordingly, we set two experiments conducted in real traffic conditions to test our stereo vision sensor. Our promising results support the application of this type of sensors for advanced motorcycle safety applications.

Current results revealed that automatic systems have the greatest potential to improve motorcycle safety. Accumulating and encoding expertise in crash analysis from a range of disciplines into a scalable and reusable analytical tool, as proposed with the use of KBMS, has the potential to guide research and development of effective safety systems. As the expert assessment of the crash scenarios is decoupled from the regional crash database, the expert assessment may be reutilized, thereby allowing rapid reanalysis when new crash data become available. In addition, the KBMS methodology has potential application to injury forecasting, driver/rider training strategies, and redesign of existing road infrastructure.