The modern concept of car injury
Authors: Plevynskys Pavlo 
Published: December 2021

The article deals with the problematic issues of the forensic medical definition of the concept of automobile trauma. An analysis of various literature sources has been carried out, according to which it can be concluded that, on the one hand, there is no single definition of car trauma for today, on the other - that any of the available definitions suffers from a certain incompleteness. With this in mind, the author developed a universal definition of car injuries for the needs of forensic doctors, and a more extensive - for both forensic doctors and experts - transport routeologists; The latter can be used for the development of issues of a related (forensic and transport-investigative) character.

Introduction. The concept of «car trauma» is firmly embedded in the structure of forensic medicine, this kind of injury is devoted to many scientific works. And, nevertheless, as the analysis of various literary data testifies, for today there is no single generally accepted forensic medical definition of automobile trauma. This situation can hardly be considered normal. Therefore, the purpose of this study was the analysis of various literature sources on car trauma, own practice, and the formulation of the most optimal concept of car trauma.Material and methods of investigation. The material of this study is various literature sources devoted to the problems of forensic medical examination of car injuries, their comprehensive analysis in terms of completeness and validity of the proposed forensic medical definitions of this type of injury.Results and its discussion. It seems that in order to avoid the artificial and unnecessary narrowing of the concept of car trauma, it is possible to offer the following purely forensic medical definition: «Trauma is a complex of injuries that result from various traumatic effects on the human body during a road traffic accident «. But to give a modern forensic medical definition of car trauma is not the whole solution of the problem. The fact is that, perhaps, irretrievably passes those times when, solely on the basis of the nature of bodily injuries, the victims made profound conclusions about the form and exact mechanism of contact interaction between the car and the victim’s body, without due analysis of other data, for example, research of clothes and shoes (Which causes obvious bewilderment - after all, the clothes and shoes affected by modern expert practice are usually researched by forensic doctors!), The results of expert car research, study Results of the inspection of the scene. Meanwhile, in the existing definitions of car injuries it is only a matter of bodilyharm, other objects (at least clothes and shoes, as «standard» for forensic researchers) are not even mentioned. But today the most reliable data on the circumstances of injuries to victims during an accident are obtained as a result of joint work of experts of several specialties - forensic doctors, transport specialists, and others. That is why the author of this work took the liberty to offer not narrow, only forensic, the concept of car trauma, but broader (forensic and transport-tracological) definition of the concept of the mechanism of traumatic effects on the human body during an accident. It seems that this concept, although it goes beyond the generally accepted forensic concepts of car trauma, nevertheless more closely meets the needs of expert practice.So, the synthesis of available scientific data and a comprehensive understanding of the problems of the transport trauma allows us to conclude that under the mechanism of traumatic impacts on the human body in case of an accident in expert activity one should understand, more often than not, the process (often complex) of mechanical contact interaction between the human body, Shoes and parts of a moving car, usually resulting in the formation of bodily injuries, injuries and marks on clothing and shoes and the corresponding parts of the car.This definition is not exhaustive - based on the specific type and specific circumstances of the accident, in addition to the listed objects, the objects, parts of the pavement, parts of other vehicles, which lead to the formation of corresponding damages and traces, and These objects. In addition, not only mechanical factors, but also other factors (thermal, chemical, etc.) that affect the bodies of victims directly related to road accidents can act on the bodies of victims during an accident, and is an essential component of the accident.In addition, it should be borne in mind that in practice there are often situations when the process of contact interaction between the listed objects does not cause the formation of visible and pathologically significant damages and traces on a part of these objects. So, with a low intensity of the contact interaction between the car and the pedestrian’s body, there may not be any tracologically significant damage and traces from such contact. In turn, if there are obvious traces of contact with a pedestrian of the corresponding visible bodily injuries, a pedestrian may not form.In addition, in practice, during the same accident there is not one, but much more participants. Some of them received visible bodily injuries, some did not. And in any case, no matter what the participant of an accident states about the absence of bodily injuries - he must be examined by an expert, and therefore is an independent object of expert investigation, regardless of whether or not he will be found bodily injuries.Sometimes the fact of the presence of bodily injuries in one participant in an accident and the fact that the other does not have a valuable differential-diagnostic criterion that allows to locate these persons inside the car. And it often happens that the injured party has no physical injuries, but nevertheless, the damage and traces valuable for expert diagnosis are formed on his clothes and shoes. All this should be taken into account by experts.Conclusion.1. The analysis of the literature data suggests that there is no generally accepted definition of an automobile trauma.2. The various definitions of car trauma that are available suffer from significant shortcomings, primarily incompleteness.3. Based on the analysis of literature data and the generalization of existing expert practice, the author proposes a universal definition of car trauma for the needs of forensic doctors and an expanded - forensic and transport-tracological definition of this type of injury for use by both forensic doctors and transport routeologists during the development of questions Complex examinations.