Журнал судебной биомеханики

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Impact Forces and Injury Potential from Landing on Large Inflatable Airbags

Erik D Power, Jeremy J Bauer, and Wilson C Hayes

This paper presents the impact forces associated with landing on a large inflatable airbag. A set of experiments was performed for a litigated case in which a man suffered injuries upon landing on a large airbag being used as an attraction/ride at a music festival. The man jumped off a 27-foot high platform, landed headfirst on the airbag and sustained a fracture to his cervical spine. To determine the impact forces involved, experiments were conducted by releasing instrumented kettlebells onto an exemplar airbag. Results demonstrated that the man’s cervical spine was subjected to 1,100 lbs of compression, which exceeded published neck injury tolerance limits. In addition to neck injuries, landing on the airbag with an outstretched arm or leg has a high potential to cause injuries to the upper or lower extremities, respectively. These results are useful and offer a strong cautionary note for forensic experts and product designers dealing with similar large inflatable airbags.