Transverse fractures of the vertebral arch or Chance fractures are rare in children. The few cases described have been associated with lap-type seat belt use. The adolescent female reported sustained a transverse fracture of L2 from a fall. This is an unusual mechanism of injury producing a Chance-type fracture in an adolescent.

A case of small bowel stricture developing 2 months after blunt abdominal trauma from a lap seat belt is presented. The cause of the stricture was probably a small perforation sustained at the time of the injury but overlooked clinically. At operation an abscess around the terminal ileum was found. The patient made an uneventful recovery following resection of the strictured small bowel.

Airbags indeed reduce the risk of injury and death in motor vehicle accidents, however, ocular injury induced by airbag deployment has been reported. From 1999 to 2001, medical records were retrospectively reviewed for patients with severe ocular injury related to airbag inflation at Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The ocular presentation, clinical course, management and visual outcome were r...

Musculoskeletal pain is commonly reported by police officers. A potential cause of officer discomfort is a mismatch between vehicle seats and the method used for carrying appointments. Twenty-five police officers rated their discomfort while seated in: (1) a standard police vehicle seat, and (2) a vehicle seat custom-designed for police use. Discomfort was recorded in both seats while wearing p...

We investigated whether the rating obtained in the EuroNCAP test procedures correlates with injury protection to vehicle occupants in real crashes using data in the UK Cooperative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) database from 1996 to 2005. Multivariate Poisson regression models were developed, using the Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) score by body region as the dependent variable and the EuroNCAP sco...

The pattern and severity of injuries sustained by 174 vehicle occupants consecutively admitted to the Accident and Emergency Department of the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary were prospectively documented. Drivers (DR) accounted for 66% of the patients, 20% were front seat passengers (FSP) and 14% were rear seat passengers (RSP). Injured patients were more likely to be male, young, intoxicated and no...

OBJECTIVE To estimate the risk of serious nonfatal injuries in frontal crashes among belted children seated in the right front seat of vehicles in which second-generation passenger air bags deployed compared with that of belted children seated in the right front seat of vehicles in which first-generation passenger air bags deployed. DESIGN AND SETTING We enrolled a probability sample of 1781 ...

BACKGROUND Many children 4 to 9 years old are inappropriately restrained in vehicles and are at risk for injury in crashes. OBJECTIVES This study was undertaken to determine the rate of booster seat use and the reasons for nonuse. METHODS Observations were conducted at a random sample of day care centers, and drivers of unrestrained children 4 to 8 years old were interviewed to determine th...

The purpose of our study was to evaluate the impact of shoulder belt use on motor vehicle crash ejection, morbidity and mortality. We analyzed motor vehicle crash records linked to hospital inpatient data for front seat occupants of passenger cars in Utah between 1994 and 1996 (n = 103,035). Stochastic simulations were used to adjust for possible seatbelt misclassification. There were 276 (0.3%...

P olicy measures, including legislation, are one method of promoting health. Participation in many voluntary health promoting behaviours is strongly socioeconomically patterned, and this may also apply to behaviours governed by legislation. Rear passenger seat belt use is one legally prescribed behaviour—having been made compulsory in the UK in 1991. Previous research on the socioeconomic distr...