Citation

Backaitis SH, Dalmotas DJ. Proc. Am. Assoc. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1985; 29: 365-391.

Affiliation

National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, USA

Copyright

(Copyright © 1985, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This paper examines injury patterns and injury sources of belted and unbelted front seat car occupants who were involved in injury producing frontal collisions. Canadian restrained occupant injury file (FROS) and 1983 NASS unrestrained occupant subfile were used for this purpose. The study shows relatively little difference in injury patterns between unrestrained drivers and passengers and rather significant differences between belted drivers and passengers. Injury sources for various occupant body areas are identified on the basis of injury severity. Head injuries caused by various vehicle components are in predominance on unrestrained drivers and passengers and also on belt restrained drivers when accidents are sufficiently severe to produce such injuries.The restrained front seat passenger appears to experience lower head injury frequencies than the restrained driver, but shows higher rates of chest and abdomen injuries. Based on specially selected subsets from both files, the study also shows that restrained drivers receive considerably lower injury severities than their unrestrained counterparts at comparable car crash intensities.