Quote:
Originally Posted by John1960
A new report by the American Journal of Public Health finds that female drivers are at a greater risk of injury or death when involved in car crashes, because seatbelts and other lifesaving devices installed in cars are not designed for their bodies.
The report said that on average, women are shorter, lighter, tend to sit in different positions and drive newer passenger cars when compared with men. Because of these factors, the odds of a woman sustaining an injury while wearing a seatbelt were 47 percent higher than for men wearing seatbelts.
Women Drivers at Greater Risk in Car Crashes, Says Study - ABC News |
First of all, way to go ABC, don't actually cite the article so we can read it. The article itself is: Bose D et al. "Vulnerability of Female Drivers Involved in Motor Vehicle Crashes: An Analysis of US Population At Risk,"
American Journal of Public Health Oct 2011, epub ahead of print. It is behind a paywall though, and my local library only has access to articles from that journal that are 1-2 months behind current.
Secondly, I would be very careful in reading too much from that particular journal. The choice of articles they choose to publish and the analysis/discussion in their articles are firmly in the European socialist "the government known better than you do" camp. The most recent issue I could access and peruse had about 10 "Peak Oil" articles and one real doozy about sexual satisfaction in college students (?!) I guess that's not surprising considering much of what the public health field is concerned with is legislating behavior...
Third, since apparently none of us can read the actual article, I guess all we can do is speculate as to what it said. I did find another similar article based on accident reports in the U.S. from 2003 (Awadzi KD et al. "Predictors of injury among younger and older adults in fatal motor vehicle crashes,"
Accident Analysis and Prevention 2008; 40(6) 1804-1810.) Their statistically significant findings were:
1. Females were 1.52 (1.30-1.78) times more likely be be hurt and 1.57 (1.33-1.86) times more likely to be killed in MVCs than men.
2. People with suspended/revoked/expired drivers' licenses were 1.47 (1.05-2.06) times more likely to be killed than those with a valid license.
3. People with a BAC > 0.02 g/dL were 1.51 (1.18-1.95) times more likely to be hurt and 2.30 (1.79-2.94) times more likely to be killed than drivers who had not been drinking.
4. People not wearing seat belts were 3.33 (2.67-4.16) times more likely to be injured and 11.27 (9.06-14.01) times more likely to be killed.
5. People involved in lane-change related crashes were only 73% as likely (OR 0.56-0.96) to be killed than somebody involved in any other kind of crash.
6. People involved in left-turn and curve negotiation crashes were only 58% (0.43-0.79) and 55% (0.43-0.72) as likely to be hurt as those involved in all crashes in total.
7. People who had previous moving violations were only 55% (0.34-0.90) as likely to be hurt in a crash as somebody with no moving violations
8. Vehicles struck off-center from the front (1:00 to 3:00 position) were 1.65 (1.05-2.59( times more likely to result in injury than those struck from straight ahead. They were no more likely to die, though.
9. Vehicles struck off-center from behind (7:00 to 9:00 position) were 2.59 (1.49-4.63) times more likely to be hurt and 3.06 (1.83-5.12) times more likely to be killed than those struck from directly ahead.
10. Vehicles T-boned from the driver's side, rear-ended, or hit from the rear passenger's side were no more likely to cause occupant harm or death than a head-on crash.
11. Sedans and coupe occupants were 1.51 (1.23-1.86) times more likely to be hurt and 2.96 (2.37-3.69) times more likely to die in a crash than SUV occupants.
12. Van, heavy truck, and pickup occupants were as likely to be hurt in a crash as an SUV occupant but only 74% as likely to die (0.59-0.92) compared to the SUV occupant.
13. Crashing into a fixed object is 2.79 (1.78-4.36) more likely to result in injury and 13.35 times more likely to result in death than hitting another car. Rollover accidents are 4.47 (2.76-7.24) times more likely to injure and 12.93 (8.04-20.79) times more likely to kill than hitting another car. However, hitting a
movable stationary object carries 3% (0.02-0.04) of the risk of injury and death compared to hitting a car.
14. Somebody driving a car they do not own themselves is 1.19 (1.02-1.39) times more likely to be hurt.
15. Crashes in which the airbags did NOT deploy are 24% (0.21-0.28) as likely to injure and 28% (0.23-2.33) as likely to kill as crashes where the airbags did go off.
16. Driving between 0800-1300 or 1400-2000 results in 79% and 75% as many injuries and 70% and 68% as many deaths as driving between 2000 and 0800.
17. Vehicles carrying one passenger are 46% as likely to cause death than ones with only a driver, and vehicles with 2+ passengers result in 30% as many deaths as a vehicle with only a driver.
18. Driving on anything but a dry road makes you 1.42 times more likely to be hurt and 1.36 times more likely to be killed.
19. People driving in town are 65% as likely to be hurt and 51% as likely to be killed as those driving outside of city limits.
20. People driving on two-lane roads are 19% as likely to be hurt as those driving on four-lane roads but just as likely to be killed. People driving on massive 8 to 14-lane highways are as likely to be hurt as four-lane highway drivers but only 77% as likely to be killed. Driving on a six-lane highway was the same risk as driving on a four-lane one.
21. A crash happening at an intersection is 74% as likely to cause an injury and 41% as likely to cause a fatality as a crash on the open road or at an interchange.
So if you want to survive a crash, be a male, wear your seatbelt, drive a big vehicle, don't drink, turn off the airbags, have a speeding ticket or two under your belt, drive on two-lane roads in town, don't drive in crappy weather, carry a couple buddies with you, and don't drive at night
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