Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, April 1, 1991 TAG: 9104010063
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A3 EDITION: STATE
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
The major finding was that front-seat passengers were less likely to suffer head and facial injuries - from impacts with windshields and instrument panels - after the seat-belt law took effect Jan. 1, 1988.
The law requires front-seat passengers to wear seat restraints. If they aren't buckled up and if the car is stopped for some other offense, the driver can be fined $25.
The study was published March 20 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The study area included Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Louisa, Orange, Nelson and Madison.
And at Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents in New Kent County, officials have noticed a dramatic drop recently in the percentage of their patients whose injuries were caused by auto accidents.
The Charlottesville area study "is the first one that looks at non-fatal injuries and what's causing them" after a state has implemented a seat-belt law, Allan F. Williams said last week.
Williams is vice president of research at the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, based in Arlington. Williams and three of his colleagues at the Insurance Institute conducted the study in collaboration with Thomas P. Kuhlmann at the emergency-medical services department of the University of Virginia.
"We have felt here that the real savings of increased seat-belt use is probably going to be in the injury area," said Richard Adams, program manager of transportation-safety administration at the state Department of Motor Vehicles.
The researchers studied crashes involving cars less than eight years old that, because of the severity of damage, had to be towed from the scene. During the year before the seat-belt law took effect, 659 wrecks involving 917 occupants were studied and compared with 525 crashes, involving 704 occupants, during the first year of the law.
Seat-belt use by drivers and right-front-seat passengers increased from about 35 percent before the law went into effect to 57 percent during the first year, according to the study.
For drivers, moderate to critical head injuries were especially reduced in front-end crashes. For front-seat passengers, the incidence of all head and facial injuries was significantly reduced.
"The percentage with neck, chest, abdominal or lower- and upper-extremity injuries did not change significantly," the researchers wrote.
The seat-belt law did not reduce the severity of injuries for drivers or passengers if the vehicles were struck on the side.
"These findings emphasize the need for improved side impact protection," the report said.
And even though the study found that driver injuries caused by impacts with steering wheels are reduced in the post-law era, such injuries remain a major problem. "For both unbelted drivers and belted drivers in severe crashes, the addition of air bags will provide much-needed protection," it concluded.
Meanwhile, officials at Cumberland Hospital for Children and Adolescents have noticed a drop in recent years in admissions of severely brain-injured auto-accident patients.
Cumberland is an 84-bed long-term care facility for brain-injured patients from 2 to 22. About one-third of its patients come from Virginia.
During 1987, two-thirds of the hospital's brain-injury patients were injured in vehicle accidents, according to Don Brady, the hospital's director of marketing. By the end of 1988, that percentage dropped to 47 percent, Brady said. During the past year, 26 percent of the hospital's brain-injured patients were such victims.
Brady said that while such trends cannot be directly attributed to seat-belt laws, "no other factor has been identified which may have caused the decrease."
More than four in 10 of the hospital's brain-injured auto-accident victims are in the 16 to 18 age group, and most of those are males. Brady said a survey of all patients admitted during the past two years indicates that less than 16 percent were wearing seat belts at the time of their accidents.
Between 1985 and 1990, 33 states and Washington have enacted seat belt laws.
by CNB