Collecting Data
CIREN is a multi-disciplinary study, involving trauma surgeons, research personnel, a crash investigator, and engineers to analyze the motor vehicle crashes and determine how each occupant injury was caused. Crush measurements gathered by the crash investigator are used to determine the severity of the crash, and contacts within the vehicle are identified.
Using this information from the crash investigator and the patient’s medical records, the CIREN team meets monthly to discuss and determine the vehicle dynamics, occupant kinematics, and crash scenarios that led to the patient’s injuries. Through discussion with all team members, each injury is sourced to a contact location, and engineers code a “biotab” that describes the mechanism of each injury. This information is then uploaded to a national database to be used for studying vehicle safety and occupant injuries in detail.