Pelvis Injury Criteria Tolerance Levels

The pelvis injury criteria comprise of two different criterions.

• Pelvis Frontal Injury Criterion (KN)
• Pelvis Lateral Injury Criterion (KN)

Pelvis Frontal Injury Criterion

Load (KN)

As there is no definitive biomechanical data and therefore no tolerance levels have been proposed to the Frontal Pelvis Injury Criterion.

Pelvis Lateral Injury Criterion

Load (KN)

In lateral loading a considerable number of impact test programmes have been conducted in response to setting injury criteria and tolerance levels for pelvic injury in automotive side impact.  In all the tests reported, the lowest load for pelvis fractures were between 4.6 – 4.9 KN for small females.  Therefore, as pelvis fractures can have a great effect on the occupant’s ability to egress the rail vehicle, a tolerance level of 4 KN for an injury Level 1 is proposed.  With 5.6 KN being the average force for an AIS 3 injury, an injury Level 2 tolerance of 6 KN is proposed with 10 KN for an injury Level 3. 

Appendix 1, Table 34 shows the proposed Pelvis Lateral Injury Criterion tolerance levels with the equivalent automotive legislation and AIS.

Pelvis Injury Criteria Summary

Appendix 1, Table 35 summarises all the injury criteria, which can be applied to direct impacts to the occupant’s pelvis.