Differential Injury Risk in Child Occupants by Passenger Car Classification

• Activity Number: 321
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 14, 2002 : 12:00 PM to 1:50 PM
• Sponsor: Biometrics Section*
• Author(s): Michael Kallan*+ and Dennis Durbin and Michael Elliott
• Affiliation(s): University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and University of Pennsylvania
• Keywords: passenger cars ; vehicular crash ; injury

Abstract

In the United States, passenger vehicles are the dominant form of personal transportation. The most common of these vehicles are passenger cars, which are extremely varied in both size and structure. While previous studies have demonstrated a relationship between vehicle size and risk of injury, this relationship has not been explored in great depth with respect to child occupants aged fifteen years and younger. This study was performed as part of Partners for Child Passenger Safety, an ongoing, child-specific crash surveillance system which links State Farm Insurance claims data to telephone survey and crash investigation data. This paper quantifies the risk of serious injury to child occupants in passenger cars and describes the relationship between risk of injury and vehicle classification, as defined by industry standards reflecting a combination of vehicle weight and structure.