Changes in injury patterns in frontal crashes: preliminary comparisons of drivers of vehicles model years 1993-1997 to drivers of vehicles 1998-2001.

Injury severity among drivers of vehicles model year 1993-1997 was compared to that of drivers of vehicles 1998-2001. Data from the National Automotive Sampling System Crashworthiness Data Sets 1993-2000 were used. Differences in injury patterns by model year and gender, type of vehicle, single- or multiple-car crash, severity of crash, safety belt use and airbag deployment were investigated. The 1206 eligible drivers in newer vehicles presented significantly fewer and less severe injuries than their 3827 pre-1998 model year counterparts. This is true for men and women, across severity of crash, and even when confounders are accounted for. The re-design of frontal airbags that occurred around 1998 could be partly responsible for these improvements.