A STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF SEAT BELT EFFECTIVENESS IN 1973-1975 MODEL CARS INVOLVED IN TOWAWAY CRASHES. VOLUME I

Standardized injury rates and seat belt effectiveness measures are derived from a probability sample of towaway accidents involving 1973-1975 model cars. The data were collected in five different geographic regions. Weighted sample size available for the analysis is 15,818 occupants for which there is complete information on belt usage, injury level, age, crash configuration, vehicle weight, and damage severity. In order to obtain the standardized injury rates and effectiveness measures as well as estimates of their precision, several alternative procedures utilizing techniques for analysis of complex categorical data were examined. In Volume I, these techniques and their application to the data are described in detail. Results are presented for various injury levels for both the overall population as well as various subsets of interest (e.g., by model year, impact site or vehicle damage severity). A sensitivity analysis is carried out to determine the effect on the estimates of including various subsets of the control variables. Finally, the estimates are reworked using direct injury costs derived largely from insurance data.

• Supplemental Notes:
  • See also PB-250 376.
• Corporate Authors:

  University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  Highway Safety Research Center
  Chapel Hill, NC  United States  27599

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Reinfurt, D W
  • Silva, C Z
  • Seila, A F
• Publication Date: 1976-9

Media Info

• Pagination: 165 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Crash injury research; Crash investigation; Crashes; Data collection; Injuries; Least squares method; Manual safety belts; Motor vehicles; Research; Statistical analysis; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Motor vehicle accidents
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Research; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00145607
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Technical Information Service
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT-HS-802-035 Final Rpt.
• Contract Numbers: DOT-HS-5-01255
• Files: TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jan 16 1977 12:00AM