Citation

Zeller RE, Hood S. Proc. Assoc. Adv. Automot. Med. Annu. Conf. 1993; 37: 419.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1993, Association for the Advancement of Automotive Medicine)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The benefits of safety belt use in reducing death and injury, and the cost savings resulting from those reductions, are examined using a matched pair approach to control for crash severity. Outcomes are compared for pairs of individuals occupying.the same vehicle, one belted and the other not belted (N=813 pairs). Data for the analysis are drawn from the 1989 and 1990 Florida Traffic Crash Reports and the Florida Trauma Registry. The latter source provides more accurate injury data than can be obtained from the crash report. When only one member of a matched pair was killed or injured, it is 2.7 times more likely to be the unbelted partner. This indicates that the safety belt's effectiveness in reducing death and injury in this sample is 63%. Non-belted partners are over-represented at all injury levels. Similar results are obtained when the sample is reduced to those crashes in which one person was killed or suffered a severe injury. Trauma Registry data indicate that injury severity is significantly lower for safety belt users. The mean Injury Severity Score for safety belt users is 2.96, compared to 4.46 for non-users. For drivers and passengers who are hospitalized, the average length of stay is 1.45 days for the unbelted group and 0.74 days for the belt users. At the observed 53.3% safety belt use rate in 1990, hospital cost savings of an estimated US$263 million resulted from safety belt use. Had the use rate been 70 %, an additional $82 million would have been saved, in addition to an estimated 151 lives saved by the increased safety belt use.