Head trauma on bumpers and bonnets is responsible for 80% of serious injuries in road vehicle crashes, making the provision of a soft impact area for the head the next safety design that ought to be fitted to cars, say Crandall and colleagues (p 1145). Tests for assessing the pedestrian injury potential of vehicles fitted with pop-up bonnets, windscreen airbags, and energy absorbing bumpers are now under way, and a voluntary agreement proposed by European automotive manufacturers stipulates that all new car types introduced after 2010 should comply with these design initiatives.
