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A railway collision at a level crossing of the Hakodate line of JR Hokkaido occurred on January 29, 2010. The details of this accident can be obtained in the railway accident investigation report published by the Japan Transport Safety Board. Based on this railway accident investigation report, numerical simulations of the level crossing collision were conducted in order to investigate a correlation between the injury rate of passengers and the deceleration history during collision. New modeling methodologies and initial conditions derived from accident details were adopted and also in order to obtain accuracy of numerical simulations, analysis models of the cab end structure and the interface structure between cars in the train were validated by quasi-static compression tests. Since the numerical simulation shows good correlation in the deformations of the cab structure and a situation of scattered parts of the railway obstacle, this paper finally demonstrates the deceleration history of each car body of the relevant train set in the level crossing collision. In regards to the maximum value of the integration of the deceleration history: MID, it was found that 7.4m/s occurs at the leading car, which had the most injuries, and it appears that exceeding 4m/s results in increase of rate of injuries above 50%. Regarding injury parameters, values at forward facing seats are lower than the half of the criteria of FMVSS208 but values at the seat of the fore end of the cabin exceed the criteria. It is estimated that injury parameters at the seat of the fore end of the cabin are within the criteria if MID is kept under 6m/s.

Ureteric sciatic hernias are extremely rare. Here we report a case of a 78-year-old woman presented with colicky left abdominal pain. Computed tomography revealed a ureteric sciatic hernia, and drip infusion pyelography revealed dilated left ureter with herniation of the ureter into the sciatic foramen. The hernia was successfully repaired laparoscopically. We have described the diagnosis and management of the patient, followed by a review of the literature on sciatic hernias.