Pedestrian Protection Through Vehicle Design

Event Overview

Vehicle design plays a crucial role in preventing and mitigating injuries during road traffic collisions. Improvements in vehicle design have driven car occupant casualty figures down over many decades, through the introduction of more stringent regulatory crash testing to the development of active safety systems. However, in the UK, pedestrians remain over-represented in road casualty figures compared to other vehicular transport modes.

In this webinar, Road Traffic Collision Investigator, Adam Barrow provides an overview of the development of pedestrian protection measures in vehicle design, including:

• The principles and challenges of pedestrian protection
• How vehicle design evolves with, and sometimes leverages, regulation
• An overview of the technologies deployed in vehicle design to protect pedestrian

Speaker Bio

Mr Adam Barrow – Associate

Adam graduated from the University of Manchester in 2012 with a degree with honours in Biomedical Sciences and a master’s degree in Biomechanics. Since then, he has gained over 12 years’ experience in collision investigation and road safety research, publishing peer-reviewed papers and reports throughout his career. After graduating from university, Adam joined the UK’s Transport Research Laboratory as a collision investigator and injury biomechanics researcher before progressing to Head of Collision Research. His work included attending live collision scenes and using forensic investigation techniques to identify the root cause of the collision and injuries sustained. Adam is experienced with collision reconstructions and investigating vehicle crashworthiness, occupant and vulnerable road user protection, injury biomechanics, safe-system failure analysis and network operational safety.

Adam has used his expertise to lead research into active and passive safety technologies, develop road safety strategies and contribute to international vehicle safety regulations. This included leading the National Highways Fatality Research Programme which was awarded the Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award in 2016. In 2021, Adam joined WSP as an Associate Consultant, focusing on safety in the design and operation of national engineering programmes. These included operational technology and upgrade scheme designs on the Strategic Road Network and Smart Motorway Network.

Adam joined Hawkins in September 2024 as an Associate based in our London office.

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