Liver and spleen injuries in side impact: differences by side of the road driven

More recently, injury from frontal impact has been greatly reduced due to the introduction of safety devices such as airbags and seatbelts. However, injury resulting from side impact still poses a problem. As the human body is asymmetric, the injury pattern and severity will depend on the side of the occupant that is hit by the impacting vehicle. Vehicles in Australia, Hong Kong, Japan and England travel on the left side of the road while vehicles in most other countries travel on the right side of the road. In many vehicles, the driver is the only occupant, hence the side of the road the vehicle is driving on becomes significant. Consequently, the objective of this research was to contrast the injury patterns and severity observed from lateral impact to the different sides of the body. This paper focuses on injury patterns to the liver and spleen. It is expected that drivers in left side travelling vehicles would have a greater chance sustaining injury to the liver while drivers in right-side travelling vehicles would have an increased chance sustaining injury to the spleen.