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In recent years a new collaboration has been formed between highway safety researchers and the medical community. Both the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have sponsored crash investigation studies in which accident reconstructionists work in conjunction with Level I Trauma Center staff. For the first time, the detailed analysis of crash circumstances and injury producing mechanisms is developed in concert with a forensic analysis of injury producing forces and tissue response. Long term patient outcome and rehabilitation costs are also addressed. This paper compares the methodologies employed in this trauma based research with those of other major data systems. It describes the background and focus of each research program and addresses the data needs that can be met.

Motor vehicle crashes are a major cause of lower extremity trauma, especially leg/foot fractures. Leg/foot fractures occur frequently, are costly, and often result in lifetime impairments. Although current information on the biomechanics of these injuries is limited, it is known that they occur more often in frontal motor vehicle collisions, and that vehicular intrusions of the toe pan and instrument panel have been implicated as possible causes. Current motor vehicle safety standards are designed to protect vehicle occupants from serious injury in collisions with a change in velocity (▵V) of less than 30 mph. Preliminary evidence suggests that collisions resulting in these injuries may occur at delta V's well within the purview of current regulatory standards. This study was designed to develop a data collection instrument with which to capture detailed information on the crash reconstruction, biomechanics, engineering, and orthopaedic aspects of leg/foot fractures.