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Title:

Seatbelt Use among Vehicle Occupants in Fatal Crashes in the United States: Does Vehicle Type and Age Affect Injury Outcome?

Accession Number:

01764413

Record Type:

Component

Abstract:

Studies have shown that occupant’s injury severity increases with vehicle age and older model year vehicles when a traffic crash occurs. But, does vehicle occupant restraint use play a role in the injury outcome? The primary objective of this study was to determine the relationship between adult vehicle occupant’s seatbelt use, vehicle type and age, and injury severity using crash data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). Five-year crash data (2014 to 2018) were retrieved from FARS for all vehicle occupants involved in fatal crashes for 50 states and the District of Columbia. Chi-square analyses were conducted to test several hypotheses regarding adult seatbelt use. The results of the analysis showed a lower seatbelt use rate among occupants of older vehicles than occupants in newer vehicles. This finding was consistent across all the vehicle types: passenger cars, pickup trucks, and sport utility vehicle (SUV)-Minivans. Regardless of how old the vehicle was at the time of the crash (i.e., 1-6 years, 7-11 years, 12-15 years, and > 15 years) and the type of vehicle involved, the seatbelt use rates were consistently lower among fatally injured occupants than those who suffered no or possible/severe injuries. The findings in this study are important for the development of seatbelt use intervention programs that are persuasive and have the greatest potential for effectiveness.

Supplemental Notes:

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ACS40 Standing Committee on Occupant Protection.

Report/Paper Numbers:

TRBAM-21-03851

Language:

English

Corporate Authors:

Transportation Research Board

Authors:

Nambisan, Shashi

ORCID 0000-0001-9232-945X

Boakye, Kwaku
Yu, Derek

Pagination:

14p

Publication Date:

2021

Conference:

Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting

Location: Washington DC, United States
Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
Sponsors: Transportation Research Board; Transportation Research Board

Media Type:

Digital/other

Features:

Figures; References; Tables

Geographic Terms:

United States

Subject Areas:

Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment

Source Data:

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2021 Paper #TRBAM-21-03851

Files:

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Created Date:

Dec 23 2020 11:25AM