Safety belt injury reduction related to crash severity and front seated position

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Campbell, B. J.¹

Safety belt injury reduction related to crash severity and front seated position

J Trauma. July 1987;27(7):733-739

©1987 The Williams & Wilkins Co

Affiliations

¹Highway Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
Abstract

This paper examines the effectiveness of seat belts in reducing injury among passenger car drivers and right front passengers. The analysis is based on more than 1.5 million occupants involved in North Carolina crashes during the years 1973-1981. Initial results show that seat belts reduce the risk of serious injury to the driver by 58% and fatal injury by 73%. For right front passengers, the comparable figures are 53% and 66%. When a measure of vehicle deformity reflecting the severity of the crash is introduced as a control variable, these effectiveness values decline somewhat. Depending on the specific approach taken, seat belts are shown to reduce the risk of serious injury to passenger car drivers by 51-52%, and the risk of fatal injury by 63-67%. For right front passengers, the effectiveness ranges are 43-44% for serious injury and 53-55% for fatal injury. While these adjusted estimates of belt effectiveness are lower than those based on the raw data, they nevertheless represent considerable benefit to car occupants using seat belts.
Links

DOI: 10.1097/00005373-198707000-00007

PubMed: 3612845

WoS: A1987J509700007

Ovid: 00005373-198707000-00007

Cited By (23)

Year	Entry
1992	Monash University Accident Research Centre. Feasibility of Occupant Protection Measures. Canberra, Australia: Federal Office of Road Safety; June 1992. Report No. CR 100.
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1991	Hansen AR, Popkin CL, Campbell BJ, Burton JH, Waller PF. Comparison of police and physician judgements of injury severity and inebriation in motor vehicle crash victims. In: 35th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 7, 1991; Toronto, Canada.249-260.
1991	Hunter WW, Stewart JR, Stutts JC, Marchetti LM, Little C, Reinfurt DW. Non-sanction seat belt law enforcement: a modern day tale of two cities. In: 35th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 7, 1991; Toronto, Canada.57-75.
1993	Evans L. Driver injury and fatality risk in two-car crashes versus mass ratio inferred using Newtonian mechanics. In: 37th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). November 4-6, 1993; San Antonio, TX.313-327.
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1994	Kim K, Li L. Seat belt usage and injuries sustained in motor vehicle collisions. In: 38th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 21-23, 1994; Lyon, France.43-55.
2000	Kent RW, Crandall JR, Bolton JR, Duma SM. Driver and right-front passenger restraint system interaction, injury potential, and thoracic injury prediction. In: 44th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). October 2-4, 2000; Chicago, IL.
2001	Bylund P-O, Björnstig U. Use of seat belts in cars with different seat belt reminder systems: a study of injured car drivers. In: 45th Annual Proceedings, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine (AAAM). September 24-26, 2001; San Antonio, TX.
1997	Braver ER, Whitfield R, Ferguson SA. Risk of death among child passengers in front and rear seating positions. In: Proceedings of the 2nd Child Occupant Protection Symposium. November 12, 1997; Orlando, FL.25-34. SAE 973298.
2017	Pipkorn B, Wass J. Pre-crash triggered pretensioning of the seat belt for improved safety. In: Proceedings of the 25th International Technical Conference on the Enhanced Safety of Vehicles (ESV). June 5-8, 2017; Detroit, MI.
2003	Siegmund GP, Chimich DD, Heinrichs BE, DeMarco AL, Brault JR. Occupant responses to moderate frontal impacts vary with seat belt slack and anchor location. In: Proceedings of the 31st International Workshop on Human Subjects for Biomechanical Research. October 23, 2003; San Diego, CA.87-96.
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2023	Soni A, Schilling S, Lucht A. Investigating the effects of pre-pretensioning on occupant kinematics and abdominal organ response during pre-crash and in-crash. In: Proceedings of the 2023 International IRCOBI Conference on the Biomechanics of Injury. September 13-165, 2023; Cambridge, United Kingdom.753-767.
1992	Agran PF, Castillo DN, Winn DG. Comparison of motor vehicle occupant injuries in restrained and unrestrained 4- to 14-year-olds☆. Accid Anal Prev. August 1992;24(4):349-355.
1998	Braver ER, Whitfield R, Ferguson SA. Seating positions and children’s risk of dying in motor vehicle crashes. Inj Prev. 1998;4(3):181-187.
1991	Anderson PA, Rivara FP, Maier RV, Drake C. The epidemiology of seatbelt-associated injuries. J Trauma. January 1991;31(1):60-67.
2007	Chong M, Sochor M, Ipaktchi K, Brede C, Poster C, Wang S. The interaction of "occupant factors" on the lower extremity fractures in frontal collision of motor vehicle crashes based on a level I trauma center. J Trauma. March 2007;62(3):720-729.
2007	Good CA. Biomechanics of Occupant Loading by Pre-Crash Motorized Shoulder Belt Tensioning [PhD thesis]. Calgary, AB: University of Calgary; 2007.
2008	Brown J. The Aetiology and Mechanisms of Serious Injury in Restrained Child Occupants [PhD thesis]. University of New South Wales; 2008.
2002	Kent RW. Dynamic Response of the Thorax: Restraint-Specific Hard Tissue Injury Prediction [PhD thesis]. Charlottesville, VA: University of Virginia; January 2002.