Further Analysis of Motorcycle Helmet Effectiveness Using CODES Linked Data

Details

• Corporate Creators:
  National Center for Statistics and Analysis (U.S.)
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Motorcycle crashes
  • Motorcycle helmets
  • Crash injuries
  • Fatalities
  • Crash analysis
  • Statistical analysis
  • Policy, legislation and regulation
  • Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES)
  • Helmet use
  • Universal helmet use legislation
• DOI:
  https://doi.org/10.21949/1403001
• Resource Type:
  Research Paper
• Geographical Coverage:
  Hawaii ; Maine ; Missouri ; New York ; Pennsylvania ; Wisconsin
• Corporate Publisher:
  United States. Department of Transportation. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. National Center for Statistics and Analysis
• Abstract:
  Linked data from the Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) in seven states was used by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as the basis of a 1996 Report to Congress on the Benefits of Safety Belts and Motorcycle Helmets (DOT HS 808 347). This study measured motorcycle helmet effectiveness using mortality, morbidity, severity and costs. The CODES data showed that motorcycle helmets are effective in preventing injuries or death in general, but even more effective in preventing brain injuries in particular. This was to be expected given that the helmet protects only the head. But, for the first time, linkages between police crash files and hospital discharge files were used to substantiate these expectations. This Research Note expands the CODES analyses to include consideration of the effect of helmet legislation in the CODES states. Helmet data, obtained from six (Hawaii, Maine, Missouri, New York, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin) of the seven CODES states and updated with new data since the Report to Congress to include an additional 137 cases, consisted of a total of 10,490 motorcycle riders involved in crashes for whom helmet use was known. As expected, universal helmet use legislation has a strong effect on actual helmet use.
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/4384/dot_4384_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 43.34 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:9e7d54371890791204ab303b8ee3de3d5adf8b36b13a65525855dd4eb9c5c8f9d1f00ffa4af69adcf0c7a87a87be7b1ef1e96daf287bbf28531de4b2febbec01