Frontal crashes have been studied extensively and have been the target of many regulatory and motor vehicle safety-enhancement efforts. While fatalities in frontal crashes, and in crashes in general, have decreased over time, there is still interest in understanding the issues that lead to these continued fatalities. This study is an extension of a prior effort that involved in-depth reviews of frontal crash fatality cases, but is conducted from an injury perspective.

Occupants who were involved in frontal crashes and restrained by a seat belt and deployed frontal air bag of late-model vehicles were selected from the National Automotive Sampling System-Crashowrhtiness Data System and Crash Injury Research and Engineering Netork databases. The cases were individually reviewed, and key factors that contributed to the fatal nature of the crash were identified based on coded data elements and other evidence in the case. Cause of death information was further analyzed along with the coded injury causation data and occupant time-to-death.