Is the front passenger seat always the "death seat"? An application of a hierarchical ordered probit model for occupant injury severity

Int J Inj Contr Saf Promot. 2020 Dec;27(4):438-446. doi: 10.1080/17457300.2020.1810072. Epub 2020 Aug 24.

Abstract

Although many studies have investigated the correlations between injury severities and seat positions, few researchers explored the correlates of injury severities (e.g., seat positions) within a crash that results in multiple occupant injuries. Therefore, we examine the injury correlates within and between crashes, and study the correlations between seat positions and occupant injury severity by constructing a hierarchical ordered probit model. A total of 20,327 occupant injuries in 16,405 motor vehicle crashes in South Australia (2012 - 2016) are used. The results of this study indicate that the rear left passenger seat is associated with a 7.66% higher chance of getting injured (including moderate and severe injury), and the front left passenger seat is associated with a 2.94% higher chance of getting injured compared with the driver seat. Besides, the higher injury chances for other passenger seats including the rear right and rear middle seats are 4.97% and 4.74%, respectively, compared with the driver seat. Thus, this study offers passengers insightful suggestions about how to protect themselves by choosing the right passenger seat in a vehicle.

Keywords: Seat position; hierarchical modeling; injury severity; marginal effect.

MeSH terms

  • Accidents, Traffic* / statistics & numerical data
  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Child
  • Child, Preschool
  • Death*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Infant
  • Logistic Models
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • South Australia / epidemiology
  • Trauma Severity Indices
  • Wounds and Injuries / epidemiology*
  • Young Adult