SAFETY BELT EFFECTIVENESS IN PREVENTING DRIVER FATALITIES VERSUS A NUMBER OF VEHICULAR, ACCIDENT, ROADWAY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL FACTORS

Safety belt effectiveness in preventing fatalities to drivers is examined versus a number of factors by applying the double pair comparison method to appropriate subsets of the Fatal Accident Reporting System data. For each of 13 factors studied, safety belt effectivenesss (the % of fatally injured unbelted drivers who would not have been killed if they had been wearing safety belts) is estimated, as is an associated standard error of the estimate. The results, which are presented graphically, provide no evidence that safety belt effectiveness is systematically influenced by most of the factors investigated, including car mass and model year. The absence of any systematic relationship with car mass is in agreement with an earlier finding based on the pedestrian fatality exposure method; this agreement adds plausibility to the assumptions used for both the earlier and the present methods. Safety belt effectiveness is greater for single car crashes than for crases involving 2 cars, this difference being statistically significant p less than .02. The results suggest weakly that safety belt effectiveness is greater for 2-door than for 4-door cars, and is greater for striking cars than for struck cars. The differences probably reflect higher effectiveness in frontal (or rollover) crashes than in side impacts.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/oclc/1800052
• Corporate Authors:

  Pergamon Press, Incorporated

  Maxwell House, Fairview Park
  Elmsford, NY  United States  10523
• Authors:
  • Evans, Leonard
  • FRICK, M C
• Publication Date: 1986

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 143-154
• Serial:
  • Journal of Safety Research
  • Volume: 17
  • Issue Number: 4
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0022-4375
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/00224375

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Environmental impacts; Fatalities; Frontal crashes; Highway safety; Manual safety belts; Measures of effectiveness; Motor vehicles; Pedestrians; Prevention; Side crashes; Single vehicle crashes; Statistics; Traffic crashes; Vehicle safety; Vehicle weight
• Identifier Terms: Fatal Accident Reporting System
• Uncontrolled Terms: Effectiveness
• Old TRIS Terms: Four door vehicles; Two door vehicles; Vehicular safety
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Environment; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00495955
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-039 685
• Files: HSL, USDOT
• Created Date: Aug 31 1990 12:00AM