Characteristics of cars, such as mass and age, play a significant role in crash severity, but their effect are difficult to quantify because of the great number of factors altering the outcome of a real world accident. In order to focus on the crashworthiness of cars, risk factors of severity suffered by the drivers involved in two-car accidents recorded by the police in 1996-2000 in France were examined. From them, three matched case control studies were undertaken where both drivers have different severity levels: killed or injured vs. uninjured; severely injured vs. slightly injured; and killed vs. injured. Odds-Ratios are estimated by conditional logistic regression. The risk of being injured decreases with the weight of the car, coming to six times lower when driving a 1200 kg or more car compared to a 800 kg or less car. The risk of being killed rather than injured increases with the age of the car, reaching the highest value when comparing cars manufactured before 1990 with more recent ones. As expected, highest risks of death or injury are shown for side-impacted cars, seat belt wearing is confirmed as being very protective and drivers of vehicles with frontal airbag are less frequently injured. The risk of being injured or killed increases with the age of the driver, and is higher for women. These characteristics of drivers are associated with both their way of driving and their capacity to withstand an impact, and it was then necessary to adjust estimates on that basis. Results showed that recent cars provide better protection, but confirm that the compatibility of cars with each other according to their weight is an important issue. It also corroborates the necessity of adaptive safety devices which take the characteristics of a car occupant into account. For the covering abstract see ITRD E825082.
Abstract