ATLANTA — Emory University and Grady Health System will conduct a study on Atlanta car crashes with a $4.4 million grant from the federal government, the two institutions announced on Friday.
According to a release, the study on car crashes has been ongoing between the hospital system and Emory's Injury Prevention Research Center. The latest grant from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will expand the research into car crashes involving pedestrians.
The release said the new money "supports Emory and Grady’s continued role as a Crash Injury Research and Engineering Network (CIREN) Center, and will also study crashes where vehicles strike pedestrians."
The study will incorporate both passengers and pedestrians who are taken to Grady after crashes who have been seriously injured. Participation will be by invitation and voluntary.
"Emory and Grady’s CIREN Center will then send expert crash investigators into the field to measure the damage to the interior and exterior of the vehicle, download the event data recorder and document the scene of the crash. In parallel, the team will record detailed injury information that will eventually be matched to specific vehicle damage. The data will be reviewed with other CIREN centers and NHTSA to help inform future research and testing aimed at improving safety and reducing serious injury in crashes," the release said.
“By using data from CIREN centers, NHTSA can identify ways to make vehicles safer for both occupants and pedestrians,”Jonathan Rupp, an associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at Emory and principal investigator of the Emory and Grady CIREN Center, said in a statement. “CIREN centers collect highly detailed data on the performance of vehicles and the injuries to the case occupant or pedestrian in crashes.”