title: Classification of rollovers according to crash severity.
abstract: NASS/CDS 1995-2004 was used to classify rollovers according to severity. The rollovers were partitioned into two classes - rollover as the first event and rollover preceded by an impact with a fixed or non-fixed object. The populations of belted and unbelted were examined separately and combined. The average injury rate for the unbelted was five times that for the belted. Approximately 21% of the severe injuries suffered by belted occupants were in crashes with harmful events prior to the rollover that produced severe damage to the vehicle. This group carried a much higher injury risk than the average. A planar damage measure in addition to the rollover measure was required to adequately capture the crash severity of this population. For rollovers as the first event, approximately 1% of the serious injuries to belted occupants occurred during the first quarter-turn. Rollovers that were arrested during the 1 ( st ) quarter-turn carried a higher injury rate than average. The number of quarter-turns were grouped in various ways including the number of times the vehicle roof faces the ground (number of vehicle inversions). The number of vehicle inversions was found to be a statistically significant injury predictor for 78% of the belted and unbelted populations with MAIS 3+F injuries in rollovers. The remaining 22% required crash severity metrics in addition to the number of vehicle inversions.
authors.affiliation: George Washington University, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Digges
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Eigen
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000145:classification*; D001334:Automobile Driving; D019992:Databases as Topic; D006801:Humans; D015601:Injury Severity Score; D012622:Seat Belts / Q000706:statistics & numerical data