Preliminary evaluation of a passive safety device concept for the protection of riders

Powered Two-Wheeler riders are over-represented in crash statistics worldwide, and currently available safety solutions have not triggered a decreasing trend. A new device concept, comprised of a wearable vest with belt stripes sewn on the back and fastened to the motorcycle frame through a metal cable, was developed to save riders' lives. The objective of this paper is the evaluation of its protective effectiveness in a set of representative crash configurations selected from the ISO 13232 database. The configurations were reproduced in a multibody environment, and each of them was characterised through the following parameters: the impact speeds, contact points, relative heading angle, and the Boolean presence of the safety device. The preliminary evaluation revealed encouraging outcomes as several body regions reported reduced injury indices. However, the benefits depended on the speed range and impact configuration. Overall, the benefits outweighed the additional risks in the selected accident database.