Study of Traffic Accidents with Micro Mobility: Mini-car (Second Report)

- Crashworthiness at Full-wrap Frontal Crash -

Abstract

Micro mobility, which is expected as new mobility for elder people, is studied in this paper. Micro mobility has two categories which are personal mobility and two seaters mobility. In Japan, personal mobility is called mini-car. In first report, mini-car accidents using traffic accident data were analyzed. In this report, full-wrap frontal barrier crash tests by mini-car were performed. The cabin which was mounted on the platform keeps enough space for passenger safety after frontal crash. However, the upper body of driver moved to front, and the face and chest were hit steering handle. Because the shoulder anchor of seat belt moved to front due to deformation of B-pillars. The average height of force (AHOF) was measured via multiple load cells on the barrier. The AHOF is lower than average of passenger vehicles. This result means that mini-car has a risk of under-ride at head-on-collision with passenger vehicle.