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This work addresses and evaluates the likelihood of human casualty in highway crashes, projected on the basis of field crash data that may become available electronically by sensors at crash time, and/or observed at the crash scene by emergency attendants. Termed collectively as a “crash signature”, such data are treated as predictors and are selected from: crash severity, general area of damage, direction of force, occurrence of rollover, intrusion, vehicle crush and its specific horizontal location, collision partner, vehicle class and size, occupant age, gender, restraint use and type, seating position, and other. Crash signatures are converted into responses such as: (a) the likelihood of the most severe outcome, fatality or survived injury, by severity AIS per occupant; and (b) the same per vehicle. Cars are the vehicles selected for this investigation.

This investigation addresses and evaluates: (a) the frequency of air bag deployments in comparison with belt only protection or no restraint, as a function of calendar year and model year; (b) injury and harm rates as a function of crash severity and restraint use and type; (c) restraint effectiveness in reducing fatalities and injuries as a function of restraint, crash severity, type of impact, and car size; (d) the confounding effects of crash severity; (e) injury patterns by injured body region, injuring contact, and injury severity; and (f) variation of injury patterns as a function of crash severity. It is found that restraints, irrespective of type, appear to be more effective at higher injury severities; the lowest casualty rates, and highest effectiveness values, are associated with the use of an air bag plus safety belt, or safety belt without air bag deployment; the air bag even without the concurrent use of a safety belt appears to offer a certain crash protection.

This investigation addresses and evaluates the injury patterns of car occupants, as a function of air bag deployment with or without belt use. A companion paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of air bag field performance, in comparison with the no restraint,or other restraint conditions,concerning: Cars, Exposure, Occupants, Restraints, & Protection provided by the restraints. The findings reported in this investigation are based exclusively on the data contained in the records of NHTSA's NASS/CDS1988-1992. The investigation focuses on car drivers. Because of the relatively late and limited introduction of air bags, all other light vehicle populations are either not represented, or represented by a very meager sample in the sources cited above.

This investigation encompasses a comprehensive evaluation of air bag field performance, in comparison with the no restraint, or other restraint conditions. The paper at hand addresses: Cars, Exposure, Occupants, Restraints, & Protection provided by the restraints. A companion paper addresses the injury patterns of car occupants. The findings of the investigation are based on two primary sources of national coverage: (i) the field crash experience contained in the records of NHTSA's NASS/CDS 1988-1992; and (ii) the fatal accident experience contained in NHTSA's FARS 1991-1993. The investigation focuses on car drivers. Because of the relatively late and limited introduction of air bags, all other light vehicle populations are either not represented, or represented by a very meager sample in the sources cited above.

Comfort and safety are major considerations in the design of occupant seats in motor vehicles. In rear impacts, the seat is the principal component of the occupant restraint system. However, it also contributes to occupant restraint in frontal. and side impacts, and rollovers. To determine how well automobile seats protect occupants from injuries in rear impacts, crash data from the national accident files in the united states were analyzed. The distributions and causes of injuries in rear impacts were categorized according to injured body region and source of injury. In addition, forty-nine selected accident cases were reviewed, to determined how the seat performed in crashes. Finally, rear impact crash tests of passenger cars were analyzed to determine dummy motion and seat performance. Non-contact injuries were associated with the largest portion of injury harm. The seat and frontal components were the two largest sources of contact injury harm.