D improvements in seat and seat-belt designs, lap-belt injuries continue to occur in children. The diagnosis of abdominal and spinal injuries is often delayed or missed completely. Heightened awareness, a good history and physical examination, as well as the appropriate investigations are required for the prompt diagnosis of such injuries. We present the case of a young boy with a lap-belt inju...

We studied National Trauma Data Bank data to determine the effectiveness of car safety devices in reducing mortality and injury severity in 184,992 patients between 1988 and 2004. Safety device variables were seat belt used plus air bag deployed; only seat belt used; only air bag deployed; and, as explicitly coded, no device used. Overall mortality was 4.17%. Compared with the no-device group, ...

Appendicitis and trauma both present in emergency department commonly but their presentation together in the same patient is unusual. We present a case of a middle-aged man brought by emergency medical services (EMS) to the emergency department with complaints of abdominal pain after he was involved in motor vehicle collision. He was perfectly fine before the accident. His primary survey was no...

BACKGROUND Most seat belt use laws originally passed in the United States contained language restricting enforcement to drivers already stopped for some other reason. States that have since removed this secondary enforcement restriction have reported increased seat belt use. The purpose of the present study was to estimate the effect of these law changes on driver fatality rates. METHOD Trend...

CONTEXT The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration currently recommend that, unless they are under 57in. in height, 8-12-year-old children use seat belts and all should ride in the rear seats of vehicles. These recommendations assume that the vehicle seat belt should provide adequate protection for these older children in the event of a crash. OB...

The current study contributes to the existing injury severity modeling literature by developing a multivariate probit model of injury severity and seat belt use decisions of both drivers involved in two-vehicle crashes. The modeling approach enables the joint modeling of the injury severity of multiple individuals involved in a crash, while also recognizing the endogeneity of seat belt use in p...

BACKGROUND Classically, seat belt syndrome appears with seat belt marks on the body, bowel perforations, and lumbar spine fractures. However the symptoms are not limited to those previously mentioned, and organ damage can vary greatly. CASE REPORT A 34-year-old female passenger, was admitted to our hospital after a motor vehicle crash. The physical examination revealed an ecchymosis across th...