Estimation of seatbelt and frontal-airbag effectiveness in trucks : U.S. and Chinese perspectives.

Details

• Creators:
  Hu, Jingwen ; Blower, Daniel
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Michigan. Transportation Research Institute
• Corporate Contributors:
  University of Michigan. Sustainable Worldwide Transportation
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  Air Bag Restraint Systems Air Bags Crash Injuries Heavy Duty Trucks Injury Rates Medium Trucks Rollover Crashes Rollover Vehicle Accidents Seat Belts Truck Accidents--China Truck Accidents--United States Truck Crashes Truck Drivers Trucks--Seat Belts

  More +
• Publication/ Report Number:
  UMTRI-2013-2
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  United States ; China
• Corporate Publisher:
  University of Michigan
• Abstract:
  The objectives of this study were (1) to estimate the effectiveness of seatbelts and driver
  
  airbags for mitigating medium- and heavy-truck driver injuries, and (2) to discuss the
  
  implication of these estimates with respect to truck-driving conditions in the U.S. and China.
  
  U.S. data showed that fatal or serious injuries of truck drivers are caused mainly by
  
  rollover, collision with a light vehicle or another truck, or collision with fixed objects.
  
  Rollover crashes account for most serious injuries, and pose the highest injury risk per crash.
  
  By controlling for the difference in crash-type distributions between trucks and light vehicles,
  
  seatbelts were estimated to be about 58% effective in reducing truck-driver injuries—
  
  comparable to the value for light vehicles. Airbags’ effectiveness was calculated to be about
  
  6% for unbelted truck drivers and 4% for belted truck drivers—lower than that for light
  
  vehicles, primarily because of the higher proportion of rollover injuries sustained by truck
  
  drivers.
  
  The main relevant difference between truck-driving conditions in the U.S. and China is
  
  the seatbelt-use rate of truck drivers: greater than 70% in the U.S., but likely less than 10% in
  
  China. This difference would likely reduce the true effectiveness of seatbelts. Therefore, it is
  
  important to encourage Chinese truck drivers to wear seatbelts, because the effectiveness of
  
  seatbelts at high use rates is much greater than that for airbags. In addition, the lower truck
  
  traveling speeds in China would likely result in a lower percentage of truck rollover crashes
  
  than in the U.S. Consequently, the effectiveness of both seatbelts and airbags in reducing truck
  
  driver injuries may be slightly higher in China than in the U.S.
  
  
• Format:
  PDF
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:c08f08009376238f5d9fbffc73c5c3f099d54aa86e9d5397d8f3e5262d2e4fa755d6022aaa534937faa0c75ad03cca764173e2e678d9684ec7af85d1e10384c6
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/25639/dot_25639_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 331.15 KB ]