Rider's head injury risks in relation to motorcycle designs in side crashes with car

Motorcycle offers so many advantages as a motorized transport but the risks on the road had translated into a very high number of casualties especially in the ASEAN region. Safety rating program is one the interventions that is hoped to elevate safety level though it faces the economical challenges to embed more technologies and design changes among entry level motorcycles. Thus, this study explores whether or not different motorcycle designs can produce a better crashworthiness advantage to the rider in the event of road crash. Specific to motorcycle versus car crash scenario where a motorcycle impacting a car laterally, this study considered eigth design configurations involving variation of the location of engine block, and the location and orientation of air filter casing. Head resultant acceleration and Head Injury Criteria based on 15 ms time interval (HIC15) is used as response variable to evaluate the injury results. The findings showed that with proper designed layout of the engine block and air fitter casing, both the head resultant acceleration and HIC15 can be reduced up to 20% and 47% respectively, compared to the existing motorcycle design.