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Head Impact Biomechanics of “King Hit” Assaults

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Handbook of Human Motion

Abstract

A typical “king hit” assault case involves an intoxicated male victim being punched to the face, which results in the victim falling backward and striking his occiput on a rigid surface. The resulting head injuries may be due to the punch, the fall, or a combination of both, which can cause permanent disability and sometimes prove fatal. For fatal cases, subarachnoid hematoma is typically the cause of death; however, subdural hematoma and skull fracture are also common in king hit assault cases. The victim may be intoxicated, which may have biomechanical consequences in terms of head and neck control and movement. In addition, alcohol intoxication may reduce the tolerance of the blood vessels to applied loads and increase the likelihood of intracranial hematoma. A biomechanist can assist in understanding a king hit assault incident and injury causation by comparing information from the evidence brief with experimental data from literature pertaining to punches, falls, and head injury tolerance limits.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Australian Collaboration for Research into Injury in Sport and its Prevention (ACRISP), Federation University Australia, Ballarat, VIC, Australia

    Declan A. Patton & Andrew S. McIntosh

  2. Oslo Sports Trauma Research Centre (OSTRC), Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway

    Declan A. Patton

  3. Sport Injury Prevention Research Centre (SIPRC), University of Calgary, Calgary, AB, Canada

    Declan A. Patton

  4. Monash University Accident Research Centre, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia

    Andrew S. McIntosh

  5. McIntosh Consultancy and Research, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Andrew S. McIntosh

Authors
  1. Declan A. Patton
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  2. Andrew S. McIntosh
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Declan A. Patton .

Section Editor information

  1. Institut for Biomechanics und Orthopedic, German Sport University Cologne, Cologne, Germany

    Gert-Peter Brüggemann

  2. Department of Computer Science, University of Houston, Houston, Texas, USA

    Zhigang Deng

  3. McIntosh Consultancy and Research, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Andrew S. McIntosh

  4. Wilmington, Delaware, USA

    Freeman Miller

  5. C-Motion Inc., Germantown, USA

    W. Scott Selbie

  6. 3 Ellalong Rd., 2090, Cremorne, NSW, Australia

    Andrew McIntosh Dr.

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Patton, D.A., McIntosh, A.S. (2018). Head Impact Biomechanics of “King Hit” Assaults. In: Handbook of Human Motion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-14418-4_185

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