Abstract
In the past several years, injuries caused by electric scooter accidents have significantly increased in areas serviced by scooter ride-share companies. The majority of injuries observed are mild to moderate in severity. In this study, a FE model of an electric scooter accident was created to observe the effect that impact speed and the type of ground have on the risk of severe injury to the rider. A FE standing Hybrid III dummy was calibrated against the certification test data using optimization techniques. To model a scooter-bump accident, the calibrated HIII FE model was placed on the scooter to mimic how a rider would stand on an electric scooter. Three scooter-bump impact simulations were run where the impact speeds were either 4.48 m/s or 3.2 m/s. The ground was similarly switched between soil and concrete. The simulation where the dummy fell on a concrete surface resulted in the highest risk of severe injury to the rider. Furthermore, the results concurred with previous literature that the head/neck region presented one of the biggest risks of severe injury. It is believed that the models developed in this study could be used in future to improve the e-scooter riders’ safety by development of new safety.
