A comprehensive overview of the frequency and the severity of injuries sustained by car occupants and subsequent implications in terms of injury prevention

The objective of the paper is to give an overview of the road injuries issues in France in the 2010's by determining the frequency and the severity of injuries sustained by car occupants, and to infer the implications in terms of vehicule safety. Three types of analysis are conducted. First, we present a time series analysis at a macro statistical level showing a dramatic decrease of injured and fatally injured occupants in passenger cars compared to other modes of road transport. Secondly, we propose a descriptive statistical analysis of the injuries (frequency and severity) sustained by car occupants, by body regions, using the AIS. Finally we propose some insights into the effectiveness of some safety features. French National crash census (BAAC) is used for a general overview of injury frequencies and raw severity scores (fatal, hospitalized, slighty injured) in car crashes. In-depth crash investigations data are used to specify the body regions and the severity of the injuries sustained by car occupants. Data show that car occupants mortality and morbidity decreased more over the last decade than other road modes: -58 % fatalities and -64 % hospitalized (compared to -39% and 55% for pedestrians, and -21% and -44% for motorcyclists for example). In crashes for which at least one person has been injured, 19 % of occupants are uninjured, 49 % of occupants sustain MAIS 1 injuries, 15 % MAIS2, 8% MAIS 3, and 9 % MAIS 4+. Regardless of seat belt use, the body regions most often injured are head, upper and lower extremities and thorax. However, at least two third up to 92% of involved persons sustain no injury at each of these body regions. The frequency of severe injuries is low, often less than 10 % and concern head and thorax mainly. Finally, the frequency and severity of injuries decrease for belted occupants in newer cars compared to older cars, whatever body regions. The frequency of severe injuries decreased by almost 50 % in these newer cars. __________________________________ INTRODUCTION In France, over the last 10 years, road fatalities decreased dramatically (7,643 fatalities in 2000 and provisionnally 3,970 in 2011, i.e. 48% overall). In Europe, fatalities reductions over the same period is close to -40% on average (ONISR, 2011). During the decade, many safety measures were implemented and they undoubtedly produced some safety benefits (Page et al, 2011). Vehicle safety measures are one kind of these safety measures. The automobile industry already made remarkable progress with regard to safety in the second part of the 20 century: improvement in safety of vehicle elements, introduction of specific safety restraint devices such as the 3-point seat belt and airbags, enhanced crashworthiness of the vehicle, improved integrity of the occupant compartment, and increased effectiveness of restraint systems (Page et al., 2009) Model years 2000 and above offer an unprecedented level of safety improvement, due to a series of recent measures: Directive 96/79/CEE and ECE.R94 about frontal impact performance standard; Directive 96/27/CEE and ECE.R95 about side impact standard; introduction of the Euro NCAP consumer tests, mainly oriented towards crashworthiness and the efficiency of passive safety measures; as well as voluntary large fitment of Antilock Braking Systems (ABS), Electronic Stability Control (ESC) and Emergency Brake Assist (EBA). In parallel, some luxury car brands after the mid-2000’s started fitting active safety devices such as lane departure warning systems, anti-collision systems, and night vision systems, made possible by the availability of embedded technology, such as radars, lidars, ultrasonic sensors and cameras. Progressively, medium-size models start being equipped with such devices as well, whereas the maturity of the technologies improves and their costs decrease.