INJURIES TO REAR-SEAT PASSENGERS IN FRONTAL AUTOMOTIVE CRASHES

An analysis of the HSRI CPIR file of automotive accident reports isolated 522 frontal crashes in which the involved car or cars contained occupants in both the front and rear seats. Those cases were analyzed to compare the frequency and severity of injuries inclurred by front-seat and rear-seat occupants. The variables studied were crash impact speed, car size, seating location, age of occupant, and use or non-use of seat belts. The results indicated that rear-seat occupants were less frequently injured, at all levels of severity, than were front-seat occupants. Occupants injured more than moderately (i.e., A/S 3-6) rank as follows: 17.3 percent of the front-seat non-belted, 14.5 percent of the front-seat belted, 10.9 percent of the rear-seat non-belted and 11.3 percent of the rear-seat belted. In cases when impact speed was greater than 26 mph, 3.7 percent of all rear-seat occupants were killed, compared to 9.1 percent of all front-seat occupants. Six percent of all non-belted front-seat occupants were killed, compared to 3.2 percent of all belted front-seat occupants. The findings suggest that in this population of fairly severe frontal crashes studied, seat-belt wearing by front-seat occupants offered then about the same protection they would have experienced if they had been occupying a rear seat, belted or non-belted. /Author/