The Occupant Object

An Occupant represents a person involved in the accident. Occupant data is used for biomechanics analysis to calculate forces experienced during the collision.

Object Structure

{
  "id": "occ_abc123",
  "name": "John Smith",
  "age": 45,
  "gender": "male",
  "height_inches": 70,
  "weight_lbs": 180,
  "position": "driver",
  "alleged_injuries": ["cervical_spine", "lumbar_spine"],
  "seatbelt_worn": true,
  "airbag_deployed": "yes",
  "pre_existing_conditions": "None"
}

Attributes

Required Fields

All required fields are validated when creating or updating occupants. Submitting occupants with missing required fields returns HTTP 400 with error code occupant_field_required.

Attribute	Type	Description
name	string	Occupant's full name
age	integer	Age in years (must be > 0)
gender	string	Gender: male or female
height_inches	integer	Height in inches (must be > 0)
weight_lbs	integer	Weight in pounds (must be > 0)
position	string	Seating position (see values below)
seatbelt_worn	boolean	Whether seatbelt was worn during accident

Optional Fields

Attribute	Type	Description
id	string	Unique identifier (read-only, assigned by server)
alleged_injuries	array	List of injury location codes
airbag_deployed	string	Airbag deployment status
pre_existing_conditions	string	Description of pre-existing medical conditions

Seating Positions

Value	Description
driver	Driver's seat
front_passenger	Front passenger seat
rear_left	Rear left passenger
rear_center	Rear center passenger
rear_right	Rear right passenger

Injury Location Codes

Used in the alleged_injuries array:

Code	Body Region
head_brain	Head and traumatic brain injury
cervical_spine	Neck/cervical spine
thoracic_spine	Mid-back/thoracic spine
lumbar_spine	Lower back/lumbar spine
shoulder	Shoulder
hip	Hip
knee	Knee
foot_ankle	Foot and ankle

Airbag Deployment Status

Value	Description
yes	Airbag deployed
no	Airbag did not deploy
partial	Airbag partially deployed
unknown	Deployment status unknown

Biomechanics Analysis

Occupant data is used to calculate:

• Spinal forces: Forces on cervical, thoracic, and lumbar spine
• Impact biomechanics: How the body responded to the crash pulse
• Injury causation: Whether crash forces could cause alleged injuries

All 7 required occupant fields must be provided for biomechanics analysis:

• name - Identifies the occupant in the report
• age - Affects spinal stiffness calculations
• gender - Affects anthropometric models
• height_inches / weight_lbs - For accurate body mechanics modeling
• position - Determines crash force vector direction
• seatbelt_worn - Affects restraint modeling

note

Creating a report with analysis_type: "accident_injury" requires at least one occupant. If no occupants exist, the API returns HTTP 422 with error code occupants_missing.

Related Endpoints

• Create Case - Create occupants with case
• Get Case - Retrieve occupant data
• Create Report - Run biomechanics analysis