F2010D072
Cause of Death for Children Involved in a Road Accident as Car Passenger: French Study
In 2003, more than 100 children younger than 12 years of age have been killed in a road accident as car passengers in France. Even if this figure is decreasing since 1992, date from which the use of a child restraint system (CRS) became mandatory, France remains the European country with the highest number of children killed in a car. Recent studies conducted in France enlightened that more than 2/3 of children were not correctly restrained while travelling in cars, which reduces considerably their level of protection. The aim of this study is to conduct an exhaustive analysis of road accidents where children have been killed as car passengers. Police reports on fatal accidents occurred between September 2001 and October 2003 in France have been collected. Experts in accidentology have analyzed and coded them. Data concerning the general characteristics of the accidents, the vehicles (type of impact, severity), the car occupants (age, use of restraint systems) were gathered in a data base. Its analysis allows identifying the characteristics of these fatal accidents in terms of type of impact, rate of use and quality of use of a specific restraint system, ejection.
Data on more than 200 fatally injured children aged less then 12 years old are on hand. Among them, approximately 60% used a restraint system, and 30% were not restrained. The information was unknown for the remaining 10%.
The analysis of the characteristics of the crash according to the type of impact shows that: - For 40%, the children were killed in frontal impact although 2/3 of them used a specific restraint. - More than 25% of the fatalities occurred in lateral impact, with 2/3 of the children being restrained in that case. - And about 20% of the children were killed in a roll over. 80 % were ejected during the crash. As the majority of these children were not restrained, one can say that these fatalities might have been avoided with the use of a restraint system. Other figures concerning the quality of use, the violence of impact, the driver characteristics (gender, alcohol and drugs impregnations, responsibility in the crash) are given and countermeasures in active and passive safety are proposed.
This abstract is supplemented by a PDF, which can be viewed here.
Session: Injury Mechanism, Injury Reduction