BACKGROUND Few studies have looked at how obesity affects injury outcomes among vehicle occupants involved in traffic collisions. OBJECTIVE To estimate the association of obesity with death risk among drivers of passenger vehicles aged ≥16 and to examine effect modification by driver sex, driver seat belt use, vehicle type and collision type. METHODS We conducted a matched-pair cohort study...

This study evaluated a device that applied a sustained increase in accelerator pedal back force whenever drivers exceeded a preset speed criterion without buckling their seat belts. This force was removed once the belt was fastened. Participants were 6 commercial drivers who operated carpet-cleaning vans. During baseline, no contingency was in place for unbuckled trips. The pedal resistance was...

Context sensitivity is a key feature in modern vehicles, which includes seat occupancy detection. Current systems are prone to misdetection or are sometimes non-existent as for rear passengers. Our approach is to look at human behavior while getting into, sitting inside and getting out of a vehicle. Occurring sensor patterns, including door opening and closing, damper and seat movement and seat...

BACKGROUND Seat belt use has been associated with decreased life-threatening thoracic injuries. However, there has been an increase in soft-tissue injuries such as breast trauma. CASE REPORT We describe a case of a young healthy female who presented to a community hospital Emergency department without any trauma designation following a motor vehicle accident. The patient was found to have hem...

An analysis of how various road infrastructure improvements affect traffic-related fatalities and injuries is conducted while controlling for other factors known to affect overall safety. The road infrastructure elements analysed include total lane miles, the fraction of lane miles in different road categories (interstates, arterial, and collector roads), the average number of lanes for each ro...