Releases Saturday 11 May 2002
No 7346 Volume 324
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(1) SEAT BELTS OFFER MORE PROTECTION THAN AIR
BAGS
(2) SEAT
BELTS AS EFFECTIVE IN CHILDREN AS IN
ADULTS
(3) POP-UP
CAR BONNETS WILL HELP REDUCE
PEDESTRIAN
DEATHS
(4) SLEEPY
DRIVERS ARE EIGHT TIMES MORE LIKELY
TO CRASH
(5) HIGH
VISIBILITY SPEED CAMERAS MAY INCREASE
ROAD DEATHS
(1) SEAT BELTS
OFFER MORE PROTECTION THAN AIR
BAGS
(Association of driver air bags with
driver fatality: a matched
cohort study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7346/1119
Driver air bags offer relatively little
benefit in road vehicle
crashes compared with seat belts, finds
a study in this week's
BMJ.
Researchers in the United States identified
all passenger
vehicles that crashed during 1990-2000
in which the driver or
passenger, or both, died. A sample of
51,031 driver-passenger
pairs was analysed to estimate the association
of driver air
bags with driver fatality.
Having an air bag was associated with an
8% reduction in the
risk of death, whether the driver was
belted or not. The
reduction in risk was greater for women
(12%) than for men
(6%).
However, seat belts provided much greater
protection, with
seat belt use reducing the risk of death
by 65%. Using a seat
belt and having an air bag reduced the
risk of death by 68%.
Contact:
Peter Cummings, Associate Professor of
Epidemiology, School
of Public Health & Community Medicine,
University of
Washington
Email: peterc{at}u.washington.edu
(2) SEAT BELTS
AS EFFECTIVE IN CHILDREN AS IN
ADULTS
(Are seat belt restraints as effective
in school age children as
in adults? A prospective crash study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7346/1123
Despite standard seatbelts being designed
for adults, they
protect school age children at least as
well as adults, finds a
study in this week's BMJ.
Researchers at ten crash investigation
centres in Canada
identified 470 children aged 4-14 years
and 1,301 adults to
study the effectiveness of standard seat
belts for protecting
school age children in road vehicle crashes.
Overall, 40% of children were unbelted,
and 22% of children
travelling with belted adults were unbelted.
The odds of sustaining fatal or moderately
severe injury for
children in the front passenger seat was
more than nine times
higher for unbelted children than for
belted ones, and for those
in the rear left seat was more than two
times higher for
unbelted than for belted children.
These results consistently show that school
age children
involved in motor vehicle crashes were
less severely injured if
they were wearing a seat belt, say the
authors. Previous
research has provided mixed results on
the effectiveness of
seat belts for school age children, and
in some jurisdictions
children are still allowed to travel unbelted
in the back seats of
road vehicles, they add.
"However, our findings do not answer the
question about
whether the degree of protection afforded
by standard seat
belts is sufficient," they conclude.
Contact:
Laura Greer, Public Affairs, The Hospital
for Sick Children,
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Email: laura.greer{at}sickkids.ca
(3) POP-UP CAR
BONNETS WILL HELP REDUCE
PEDESTRIAN DEATHS
(Designing road vehicles for pedestrian
protection)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7346/1145
Road vehicles may soon be fitted with pop-up
bonnets,
windscreen airbags and energy absorbing
bumpers to improve
pedestrian safety, according to researchers
in this week's BMJ.
Collisions between pedestrians and road
vehicles are
responsible for more than a third of all
traffic related fatalities
and injuries worldwide, yet research has
so far concentrated
almost exclusively on increasing the survival
of vehicle
occupants, argue researchers at the University
of Virginia,
USA.
Crash engineers, however, have long been
aware that the same
principles of car safety design that have
produced enormous
benefits for vehicle occupants can be
extended to provide a
safer environment for pedestrians during
impact with a vehicle.
For instance, dynamically raised bonnets
and windscreen air
bags can reduce head injury, while energy
absorbing bumpers
can reduce injury to the lower limbs.
Tests for assessing the pedestrian injury
potential of vehicles
are now underway, and a voluntary agreement
proposed by
European automotive manufacturers stipulates
that all new car
types introduced after 2010 should comply
with these
pedestrian safety test requirements.
If vehicles are required to comply with
these recommendations,
estimated reductions in pedestrian fatalities
should exceed 20%,
conclude the authors.
Contact:
J R Crandall, Center for Applied Biomechanics,
University of
Virginia, Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
Email: jrc2h{at}virginia.edu
(4) SLEEPY DRIVERS
ARE EIGHT TIMES MORE LIKELY
TO CRASH
(Driver sleepiness and risk of serious
injury to car occupants:
population based case control study)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7346/1125
Driving while feeling sleepy, driving after
five hours or less of
sleep, and driving between 2am and 5am
are all associated with
a substantial increase in the risk of
a car crash resulting in
serious injury or death, finds a study
in this week's BMJ.
Researchers identified 571 car drivers
or passengers who were
admitted to hospital or died as a result
of a car crash in the
Auckland region of New Zealand between
April 1998 and July
1999. A further 588 people driving on
the region's roads during
the study period were used as a control
group.
They found an eightfold increased risk
if drivers reported
sleepiness, an almost threefold risk for
drivers who reported
five hours or less of sleep in the previous
24 hours, and a five
fold risk for driving between 2am and
5am.
Reducing these three behaviours may reduce
injuries or death
by up to 19%, say the authors. It also
provides some simple
messages with regard to specific driver
behaviours in place of
general advice against driving while sleepy,
they conclude.
Contact:
Jennie Connor, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology,
Division of
Community Health, University of Auckland,
New Zealand
Email: j.connor{at}aukland.ac.nz
(5) HIGH VISIBILITY
SPEED CAMERAS MAY INCREASE
ROAD DEATHS
(Letter: Increasing visibility of
speed cameras might increase
deaths and injuries on roads)
http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/324/7346/1153
Government plans to increase the visibility
of speed cameras
and ban dummy warning signs on roads where
there are no
cameras may increase deaths and injuries
on the road,
according to a letter in this week's BMJ.
Speed cameras will now be painted yellow
and must be visible
from a distance of up to 100m. Police
forces will also be
forbidden from erecting warning signs
on roads where there
are no cameras.
These measures seem destined to placate
the angry minority of
motorists who believe that drivers should
be warned about
impending cameras, giving them the chance
to slow down,
argues Paul Pilkington, a specialist in
public health at Avon
Health Authority. But this view is not
based on evidence of
health benefits. Hidden cameras are associated
with net falls in
speeds, crashes, and casualties when compared
with visible
ones.
The introduction of high visibility speed
cameras is a mistake,
he says. We need evidence that they are
more effective than
hidden cameras. If they do not reduce
collisions, deaths, and
injuries more effectively they should
not be introduced.
Road safety policy should be based on evidence
of health
benefits and not on pressure from a vocal
minority, he
concludes.
Contact:
Paul Pilkington, Specialist in Public Health,
Avon Health
Authority, Bristol, UK
Email: Paul.Pilkington{at}userm.avonhealth.swest.nhs.uk
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