Are full or empty beer bottles sturdier and does their fracture-threshold suffice to break the human skull?

Journal of Forensic and Legal Medicine
Volume 16, Issue 3, April 2009, Pages 138–142

Stephan A. Bolliger, MD (Senior Forensic Pathologist), Steffen Ross, MD (Radiologist), Lars Oesterhelweg, MD (Forensic Pathologist), Michael J. Thali, MD (Professor, Director, Forensic Pathologist), Beat P. Kneubuehl, PhD (Physicist)

Centre for Forensic Imaging and Virtopsy, Institute of Forensic Medicine, University of Bern, IRM, Buehlstrasse 20, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland

Abstract

Beer bottles are often used in physical disputes. If the bottles break, they may give rise to sharp trauma. However, if the bottles remain intact, they may cause blunt injuries. In order to investigate whether full or empty standard half-litre beer bottles are sturdier and if the necessary breaking energy surpasses the minimum fracture-threshold of the human skull, we tested the fracture properties of such beer bottles in a drop-tower.

Full bottles broke at 30 J impact energy, empty bottles at 40 J. These breaking energies surpass the minimum fracture-threshold of the human neurocranium. Beer bottles may therefore fracture the human skull and therefore serve as dangerous instruments in a physical dispute.

Keywords

Breaking energy threshold; Beer bottles; Blunt head trauma

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X08001728