The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) National Center for Statistics and Analysis (NCSA) recently released the annual crash statistics for the year 2003. A total of 42,643 people died on the Nation’s highways. The numbers were made available from NHTSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), which annually collects crash statistics from 50 States, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Research has found that lap/shoulder safety belts, when used, reduce 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. For light truck occupants, safety belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 60 percent and moderate-to-critical injury by 65 percent. However, the 2003 data showed that a majority of fatally injured passenger vehicle occupants continue to be unrestrained (56 percent). This Crash•Stats looks at the differences in restraint use among fatally injured passenger vehicle occupants based on sex. (Author/publisher)
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