Novel car bonnet could reduce pedestrian fatalities

Crash specialist Cellbond, based in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, has collaborated with researchers at Anglia Ruskin University’s Engineering Simulation Analysis and Tribology (EAST) group to develop and test a prototype.

Pedestrians account for 20 per cent of all traffic fatalities in Europe and 14 per cent in the US — with the majority being caused by head impacts. Statistically, 65 per cent of pedestrians who impact or roll on the bonnet of a car that is going more than 40mph are killed or suffer serious injury.

In such a crash the pedestrian is initially impacted by the car and then by the ground, and most fatalities and head injuries occur when there is insufficient clearance between the bonnet and stiff underlying engine components.

‘Manufacturers are packaging vehicles a lot more compact in order to make them as light as possible. In recent vehicle designs the bonnet is very close to the engine block, so the bonnet acts like a brick wall,’ said Prof Hassan Shirvani, director of Anglia Ruskin University’s EAST group.