To reduce the risk of dying in a car crash, everyone should wear seatbelts. That was the conclusion of a study reported in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Researchers analyzed National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data on approximately 62,000 car crashes from 1988 through 2000 and found that the risk of death is lowest when all passengers are restrained by a seatbelt of any type or a child car seat. This prevents passengers from being killed by the bodies of other passengers being hurled forward, backward or sideways during a crash.
For front-seat passengers wearing restraints, the risk of death was increased by 20 percent if someone behind them was unrestrained. For rear-seat passengers, the risk of death was increased by 22 percent if someone in front of them was not restrained. Passengers wearing a restraint also had a 15 percent increased risk of death if the person sitting next to them was not wearing one.
The researchers concluded that use of restraints by passengers in the rear seat could prevent one in six deaths of front-seat passengers wearing restraints, and that use of restraints by front-seat passengers could similarly reduce the risk of death among those in the rear seat.
This information is provided by the Medical Society of the State of New York. For more health-related information and referrals to physicians in your community, contact the New York City Department of Health by calling 311.
