Work in trauma biomechanics is subject to a number of limitations that are less stringent, or even totally absent, in other fields of the technical and life sciences. First, experiments involving loading situations with humans that could cause injury are excluded. Secondly, animal models are of limited use because of the difficulty of scaling trauma events reliably from animals up or down to humans. Questionable representativeness of animal models with respect to human biomechanics, in spite of some similarities, poses another challenge. And finally, cost, public awareness and, above all, ethical considerations further limit how and what type of experiments can be conducted.