In motor vehicle collisions there is a well-established relationship between the level of damage sustained
by the vehicle, its change in speed during the collision period, the movement of occupants and the
potential for their injury. Greater damage, with respect to structure, means a greater potential for injury. In
terms of rear-end impacts, speed change thresholds for injury have been suggested in previous literature.
This research uses human test subjects and three full-scale vehicle, rear-end collisions to investigate the
correlation between speed change and occupant movement and uses it to test the suggestion of a second
threshold where the accelerations are similar to an everyday activity.