Pop-up Car Hood Can Reduce Pedestrian Deaths

Pop-up car bonnets can secure the safety of pedestrians at a car crash.

Latest edition of a British medical magazine `British Medical Journal` introduced the car design that reduces serious injuries in road vehicle crashes.

One of the designs is pop-up bonnet. Pop-up hood activated by sensors in the bumper that sense an impact with a pedestrian and rapidly lift the bonnet. Bonnet is a metal hood of engine at front side of a car.

When a car strikes a pedestrian, lower limbs are broken in 0.03 second, and all body, especially head hits bonnet and windscreen. 80 percent of pedestrians get injuries on head.

Bonnet surface is made from sheet metal, but what matters is the engine under the bonnet. Car manufactures made 10cm clearance between bonnet and engine, but it cannot absorb the whole energy hitting head.

However, pop-up bonnet, which is lifted at a crash, expands the room between bonnet and engine that it prevents the hitting of head against windscreen.

As well as providing more deceleration space under the bonnet, the raised bonnet can prevent the head of the pedestrian from hitting the windscreen.

More comprehensive coverage can be obtained by using airbags to cover this gap.

The measures to avoid lower limb trauma are to make the bumper at car front bigger and softer and to lower the bumper preventing the upper body and the leg from rotating in opposite directions.

Wing style spoiler under the bumper prevents children hit against bumper from rolling down to the car.

In addition, the folding emblem that domestic luxury cars introduced and the double bumpers of leisure vehicles are prohibited to protect pedestrians in Europe.

Experts estimate that design concepts for the protection of pedestrian may reduce the injuries or deaths of about 700,000 persons or 20 percent of total pedestrian injuries in a year.

puset@donga.com