INJURY FREQUENCY AND SEVERITY IN ROLLOVER CAR CRASHES AS RELATED TO OCCUPANT EJECTION, CONTACTS AND ROOF DAMAGE. IN: OCCUPANT AND VEHICLE RESPONSES IN ROLLOVERS

During 1977-1979, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) conducted a National Crash Severity Study (NCSS) that provided a statistical database of automobile crashes in the use, including accident and injury information on passenger cars and their occupants in tow-away crashes. This chapter, from a comprehensive textbook on occupant and vehicle responses in rollovers, reports on a study that used that data to study the occupants, overall injury severity, the influence of vehicle factors (occupant contacts and roof damage) on occupant injury frequency, and the effect of occupant ejection, all in crashes that included passenger cars that rolled over. The authors conclude that the frequency of the more serious injuries or fatalities to rollover occupants who are not ejected is the same as in occupants in all types of crashes. The more serious injuries and fatalities are 17 times more frequent to ejected occupants in rollover crashes. Roof deformation is not causally related to injury severity.