A car occupant might be killed if s...

A car occupant might be killed if struck on another occupant who was catapulted forward, backward, or sideways in a crash. Cummings and Rivara estimated the association between the death of a car occupant and the restraint use of another occupant in the same car.

The authors matched "target" pairs in reports of cars that crashed and outcomeed in the death of single of the target occupants. The authors used a rule designed to eliminate confounding related to vehicle spe crash location, and other variables. from assessing information related to restraint use of other passengers, the application of mind sought to determine the result of restraint use, or lack of it, in succession the target occupant, whether that target occupant was restrained or not. Target pairs considered in the inquiry were both in the assurance seat or both in the back seat, or united seated behind the other. Occupants with a front-back diagonal relationship were not considered.

The risk of death for a van target with a restrained occupant seated behind was nearly the same as that of a face target with no one seated behind. However, when the someone behind the front target was unrestrained, the risk of death was greater than with no undivided seated behind and was greatest when the face target was restrained.

The risk of death for a rear target with a restrained occupant seated in van was similar to that of a rear target with no undivided seated in front. However, when the impudence occupant was unrestrained, the risk of death to the rear occupant was greater than if no single were seated in front.

The risk of death from an unrestrained occupant seated nearest to the target was greater than if there was no undivided seated beside the target. If the target was restrained, the risk of death was les if the adjacent [i]role[/i] was restrained, compared with having no common seated next to the target.

An unrestrained target was les likely to die if the [i]role[/i] adjacent also was unrestrained than if that occupant was restrained. This latter finding may have been caused through the likelihood that when brace unrestrained per-sons are seated side-by-side, they are thrown in the same direction, rather than against each other. However, the authors speculate that the finding also may have been a con-founding error.

The authors established associations between restraint use and nonuse by means of occupants seated in relation to each other. If the associations are causal, the authors estimate that use of restraints by the agency of rear occupants may prevent about common in six deaths of restrained front-seat targets. Similarly, use of restraints through front-seat occupants would reduce rear-seat occupant deaths. The authors determine that all persons in the same car should wear restraints to bring into crash deaths, especially deaths that arise because of the impact of unrestrained passengers in succession restrained passengers.

Cummings P Rivara FP Car occupant death according to the restraint use of other occupants. A matched cohort application of mind JAMA January 21, 2004;291:343-9.

COPYRIGHT 2004 American Academy of Family Physicians

COPYRIGHT 2004 Gale Group