Brain Injury Association of New York State

Motor Vehicle Safety

Head and chest injuries are the most frequent cause of death in collisions without seat belts.

Crash Facts

Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for 15-20 year olds.
In 1996, 3,387 drivers 15 to 20 years old were killed, and an additional 373, 000 were injured in motor vehicle crashes.
Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for children from ages 6 to 14 years old.

Air Bags

Air bags, combined with lap/shoulder safety belts, offer the most effective safety protection available today for passenger vehicle occupants.
It is estimated that during 1996, 686 lives were saved by air bags.
Air bags are supplemental protection and are not designed to deploy in all crashes. Most are designed to inflate in a moderate to severe frontal crash.
Children in rear-facing child seats should not be placed in the front seat of cars equipped with passenger-side air bags. The impact of a deploying air bag striking a rear-facing child seat could result in injury to the child.

Put Kids in the Back Seat

Always place infants and children under 12 in the back seat of the vehicle.
Infants age 1 and younger or weighing less than 20 pounds should ride in rear facing child safety seats in back seat.
Never put an infant in the front seat of a vehicle equipped with a passenger-side air bag.
Children weighing 20-40 pounds should ride in approved car seats, facing forward and in the back seat.
Pickup Trucks: Someone who is riding in the back of a pickup truck is 26 more times likely to be ejected than someone riding in the cab.
Children weighing 40 pounds or more should ride in booster seats in the back seat until they are big enough for both shoulder and lap belts to fit correctly.

Seat Belts

Seat belts are 57 percent effective in preventing traumatic and fetal brain injuries.
Brain and chest injuries are the most frequent cause of death in collisions without seat belts.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, over the past 10 years, safety belts have prevented some 55,600 deaths, 1,300,000 injuries and saved more than $105 billion in economic costs.
In a crash, unrestrained occupants of a car keep moving during the time the car takes to stop. They are still moving forward at their original speed when they slam into the steering wheel, windshield or other part of the car.
Simple but important principles underlie the effectiveness of seat belts. In a crash they:
Increase the limit it takes the occupant to stop
Spread the force of impact over a large portion of the body
Minimize contact with the vehicles interior.
Protect occupants from being thrown out.
Research has found that lap/shoulder safety belts, when used, reduced the risk of fatal injury to front-seat passenger car occupants by 45 percent and the risk of moderate to critical injury by 50 percent.
Among passenger vehicle occupants over 4 years old, safety belts saved an estimated 10,414 lives in 1996.
Ejection from the vehicle is one of the most injurious events that can happen to a person in a crash. In fatal crashes, 73 percent of passenger occupants who were totally ejected from the vehicle were killed. Safety belts are effective in preventing total ejections: only one percent of the occupants reported to have been using restraints were totally ejected, compared with 20 percent of the unrestrained occupants.
The 1997 national average seat belt use rate is 69 percent; that rate is even lower for teens. Young people, especially males, often believe that they will escape injury and death. Yet, young people are the highest risk for traffic crashes and still often fail to use this important piece of safety equipment.

Fatigue

You will know you are becoming drowsy if:
Your eyes feel sore or heavy
You begin day dreaming
You continually yawn
You feel still or cramped
You react slower to traffic
Your speed varies for no apparent reason
You start making poor gear changes
You make rash decisions due to impatience
Your vehicle wanders over the center line or on the road edge.
Once Fatigue has set in, nothing can improve your concentration. There is only one thing you can do: STOP! Take a complete break from driving. Sleep is the only answer!