Abstract
From an in-depth study of 117 seriously or fatally injured belted front seat occupants of cars, all of whom were involved in frontal impact accidents, two main conclusions can be drawn. (1) Amongst the seriously or fatally injured belted occupants without evidence of head contact clinically important injury to the cranial contents or to the deep structures of the neck was uncommon; (2) Amongst the seriously or fatally injured belted occupants with evidence of head contact the proportion of casualties with neck injury more severe than minor was less than amongst those without head contact although the number with head injuries was greater.