Passenger Vehicle Occupant Fatalities by Restraint Use and Ejection Status, 2003

This document provides descriptive statistics on the extent of restraint use among fatally injured occupants of passenger vehicles in 2003. Data are presented for occupants of Passenger Cars, Pickup Trucks, Minivans, Large Vans, SUVs and other types of Light Trucks and Vans (LTVs).

As shown in the Table (overleaf), 56 percent of the occupants killed in fatal crashes were not restrained, i.e., they were not wearing safety belts or not properly restrained in child-safety seats, etc. The chance of a serious injury is higher when an occupant is not restrained, among other things, the chances of being ejected out of the vehicle increases. Fatality rates among non-ejected occupants are dramatically lower as compared with the ejected occupants in the same crash.

Source
The data used in this document are from NCSA’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) Annual Report File for 2003.

Results
Overall, 44 percent of unrestrained passenger vehicle occupants are ejected, partially or totally, from the vehicle as compared to only 6 percent of restrained occupants. Other notable observations include:

• 65 percent of fatally injured unrestrained SUV occupants were ejected totally or partially, the highest among all types of passenger vehicles. The lowest such proportion was 35 percent for passenger cars.
• 57 percent of fatally injured unrestrained SUV occupants were totally ejected from their vehicles. This compared with 28 percent of all unrestrained passenger car occupants, 39 percent of all unrestrained pickup truck occupants and 41 percent of all unrestrained minivan occupants.
• 50 percent of all fatally injured passenger car occupants were unrestrained as compared to 71 percent of all pickup truck occupants, 64 percent of all SUV occupants and 52 percent of all minivan occupants.
• Overall, about 26 percent of fatally injured occupants were ejected from their vehicles. Also, about 80 percent of all ejected, fatally injured occupants were totally ejected.