Fatalities of Second-Row Children in Front, Side and Rear Impacts by Calendar Year (CY) and Model Year (MY) 2022-01-0860

Field data was analyzed on second-row children in front, side and rear impacts to study fatality trends by model year (MY) and calendar year (CY) with 1980-2020 MY vehicles. The different MY and CY perspectives show changes in rates that are useful for setting priorities for second-row child safety in rear impacts.

1990 to 2019 FARS was queried to assess the number of fatally injured and non-ejected second-row children (0-15 years old) in crashes without fires. The children included outboard occupants seated behind an occupied front seat and center occupants. The data was analyzed for rear, front and side impacts to assess crash frequency. 1990-2015 POLK was queried to assess exposure of registered vehicles and estimate a fatality rate. The FARS and POLK data were sub-grouped by MY of the vehicle and CY of the crash.

There were 2.8-times more fatally injured children in frontal crashes than in the rear crashes. The ratio of frontal and rear crashes varied with CY sub-groups. It was 3.9-times higher in ‘90-‘96 CY vehicles and 2.2-times in’11-‘19 CY. The CY groupings obscured the change seen by MY. The data was re-assessed by excluding older vehicles with MY 10 years and greater (MY ≥ 10). The results indicated that almost half of fatally injured second-row children in rear-crashes occurring in the ’11-’19 CY sub-group were involved in older vehicles (MY ≥ 10). From 2010-19, 59% ± 7% of children fatally injured in rear impacts were in vehicles 10 year old or older. The data for rear crashes was further analyzed by age of the vehicle. The cumulative distribution indicated that 25% of the cases were in vehicles 5 years and younger from the time of the crash (MY ≤ 5), 50% with a MY ≤ 9, and 75% with a MY ≤ 12.

Fatality rates were assessed as the ratio of fatalities per registered vehicles for the various sub-groups. The trends in rate for second-row child fatalities varied over time. The rate decreased with MY (model year) of the vehicle. There has been a reduction in the rate of child fatalities in the second row in rear impacts with newer MY vehicles that is not seen when the data is analyzed by CY. These results highlight the importance of analyzing data by the age of the vehicle.