Relative Risk of Death for Ejected Occupants in Fatal Traffic Accidents

摘要

Many traffic crashes occur each year that involve a person being ejected from a vehicle. Numerous reports have shown that the chances of surviving a crash are much better if the people involved are not ejected. In general, crashes that involve ejections are of higher crash severity and it is not apparent how much of the increased risk is due to ejection and how much is due to crash severity. The note reports the results of investigating the relative fatality risk for ejected occupants from the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) file, while using a method of paired comparisons to control for crash severity. Using the method on 1982 to 1985 FARS data shows that the risk of death for ejected drivers is about four times that for non-ejected drivers, while the risk for right-front passengers is about two and one half times that for non-ejected right-front passengers.