Premium
Injury Pattern as an Indication of Seat Belt Failure in Ejected Vehicle Occupants
Author(s) -
Freeman Michael D.,
Eriksson Anders,
Leith Wendy
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of forensic sciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.715
H-Index - 96
eISSN - 1556-4029
pISSN - 0022-1198
DOI - 10.1111/1556-4029.12482
Subject(s) - seat belt , crash , poison control , injury prevention , motor vehicle crash , medicine , occupational safety and health , logistic regression , forensic engineering , human factors and ergonomics , medical emergency , engineering , computer science , automotive engineering , pathology , programming language
Prior authors have suggested that when occupant ejection occurs in association with a seat belt failure, entanglement of the outboard upper extremity ( OUE ) with the retracting shoulder belt will invariably occur, leaving injury pattern evidence of belt use. In the present investigation, the authors assessed this theory using data accessed from the NASS ‐ CDS for ejected front seat occupants of passenger vehicles. Logistic regression models were used to assess the associations between seat belt failure status and injuries. Injury types associated with seat belt failure were significant OUE and head injuries ( OR = 3.87, [95% CI 1.2, 13.0] and 3.1, [95% CI 1.0, 9.7], respectively). The two injury types were found to be a predictor of seat belt use and subsequent failure only if combined with a high (≥0.8) precrash probability of belt use. The injury pattern associated with a seat belt failure‐related ejection has limited use in the forensic investigation of crash‐related ejections.