Kinematic responses of child as second rider of electric-two-wheelers under lateral impact with vehicle

Electric-two-wheeler (E2W) related accidents have become a major safety concern on road due to the growing prevalence and the high casualty rate. Most existing studies focus on drivers of the E2W, while ignore the second rider (usually a child) as passenger. This study aims at investigating the kinematic response of the child rider upon vehicle impact and analyzing how motion patterns are influenced by the geometric parameters of the vehicle and E2W. A computational framework was established for the intended task. We modeled the E2W-rider system in Madymo, including an E2W with parametric geometry and two riders, one adult and one child respectively. This study focuses on lateral impact in terms of the accident scenarios, as the case dominates in the field data reports. Vehicle types, seating height of the E2W and sitting position of the child rider were considered as variables in the simulation matrix. Results show that the relative height between child's sitting and vehicle hood front-edge, and the sitting position (back-seated or front-seated) are two main influencing parameters on kinematic responses of child rider. The child rider tends to bounce higher on hood upon impact when sitting above the hood front-edge, while might be laterally pushed away by the car-front when sitting below the hood front-edge. Meanwhile, back-seated child rider is more likely to rise higher and rotate faster upon impact compared to a front-seated one. These findings may guide safe riding and safety countermeasure development for child riders of E2W.