The purposes of this study were to determine which seat features/occupational demands contributed to police officer discomfort and whether an automobile seat fitted with an active lumbar system (ALS) could reduce driving discomfort. Fifty-eight officers were given questionnaires to assess driving discomfort. High discomfort levels were associated with computer use, duty belt, sidearm/radio, bod...

OBJECTIVES To assess the effect of the North Carolina law mandating that all front seat passengers use a safety belt on children 4 through 15 years of age. METHODS North Carolina collision reports, completed by local police or the state highway patrol for crashes with greater than $500 worth of damage, were analyzed using time series analysis on the monthly percentage of deaths and serious in...

OBJECTIVE This paper details an observational study that estimates rates for wearing seat belts in rural Alberta and compares them with rates derived from a similar study conducted in 1999. METHOD Direct observations of drivers and front-seat passengers of 72,593 light-duty vehicles were carried out at 334 survey locations in communities with populations of fewer than 25,000, throughout north...

OBJECTIVES Seat-belt wearing rates in the North reflect workers in the oil industry, necessitating sociocultural descriptions on the issue. The objective of this study was to describe how the social context influences oil workers' views of risk and seat-belt wearing behaviour in northern Alberta. STUDY DESIGN The study design was qualitative research. Focus groups were held with oil workers i...

As part of NHTSA’s Rear Seat Occupant Protection Research Program, the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) and State Data System (SDS) for Florida, Pennsylvania and Maryland were utilized to estimate relative fatality rates and injury risk ratios between the front and rear seat passengers. In addition, a parametric study of rear-seat restraint parameters was performed to assess chest defl...

Previous studies have demonstrated that booster seats reduce the risk of seat belt syndrome, in particular the occurrence of abdominal organ injuries, by improving the fit of the seat belt on young children and encouraging better posture and compatibility with the vehicle seat itself. However, other researchers have shown that abdominal injuries are still prevalent even with the use of booster ...

The drivers and passengers of two cars which collided head-on all wore lap and diagonal seat-belts. Three of the four suffered ruptured viscera and two incurred flexion-compression fractures of the neck.A victim of a traffic accident who was wearing a seat-belt and who has superficial bruising or pain presents a difficult diagnostic problem. Visceral injury should be suspected in such cases.

OBJECTIVE To describe several aspects of booster seat use and misuse in a sample of children attending child safety seat clinics. METHODS Booster seat practices were assessed at 76 child safety seat clinics held between April 1997 and January 1999 in Pennsylvania and southern New Jersey. At each assessment, a child passenger safety team evaluated the booster seat and identified modes of misus...

Although air bags have been reported to reduce passenger mortality in frontal collisions, they have also been reported as a cause of injury in motor vehicle collisions(MVCs). The purpose of this study was to evaluate a large cohort of patients involved in MVCs to determine mortality and the pattern of injuries associated with seat belt use and air bag deployment. Information on patients involve...

To assess the efficacy of occupant protection systems, the authors measured the mortality reduction associated with air bag deployment and seat belt use for drivers involved in head-on passenger car collisions in the United States. They used a matched case-control design of all head-on collisions involving two passenger cars reported to the Fatality Analysis Reporting System in 1992-1997, and d...