This study examines the rate, severity and nature of moderate to fatal cervical spine injury (Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) equal to or greater than 2) for restrained (lap and diagonal belt) front seat occupants, who did not receive head impacts during the crash phase. The incidence of such injury was found to be 1.2% of the police reported killed and seriously injured front seat belted occupants within the UK's Co-operative Crash Injury Study (CCIS) database. The majority of these injuries were not life threatening, with 77% sustaining an AIS = 2 injury only. Due to the rarity of such injuries conventional analysis methods were not applied, instead case studies are reported. From a sample of 22 cases, 77% of the impact types were frontal, and females had a higher incidence of injury than males, particularly elderly females. (A)
Samenvatting