Effects of Seat Belt Usage on Injury Pattern and Outcome of Vehicle Occupants After Road Traffic Collisions: Prospective Study

Background Injury and death from road traffic collisions (RTCs) is a major health problem worldwide. The seat belt is the most important RTC safety innovation to reduce injury severity and death from RTCs. We aimed to study the effects of seat belt usage on injury patterns and outcomes of restrained vehicle occupants compared with unrestrained occupants after RTCs. Methods RTC trauma patients who were vehicle occupants and admitted to Al-Ain and Tawam Hospitals, or who died after arrival at the emergency departments were prospectively studied during the period of April 2006 to October 2007. Demography of patients, position in the vehicle, usage of seat belts, injury severity markers, Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), hospital stay, need for surgery, injured body regions, and mortality were analyzed. Results Of 783 vehicle occupants, 766 (98%) patients with known seat belt status were studied. Among them, the 631 (82.4%) who were unrestrained were significantly younger than the restrained patients ( P