Implications of using administrative healthcare data to identify risk of motor vehicle crash-related injury: the importance of distinguishing crash from crash-related injury.

Background: Administrative healthcare databases, such as Medicare, are increasingly used to identify groups at risk of a crash. However, they only contain information on crash-related injuries, not all crashes. If the driver characteristics associated with crash and crash-related injury differ, conflating the two may result in ineffective or imprecise policy interventions.

Variation in drivers' seat belt use by indicators of community-level vulnerability.

Introduction: Examining crash reports with linked community-level indicators may optimize efforts aimed at improving traffic safety behaviors, like seat belt use. To examine this, quasi-induced exposure (QIE) methods and linked data were used to (a) estimate trip-level seat belt non-use of New Jersey (NJ) drivers and (b) determine the degree to which seat belt non-use is associated with community-level indicators of vulnerability.

Method: Driver-specific characteristics were identified from crash reports (age, sex, number of passengers, vehicle type) and licensing data (license status at the time of the crash).

Restraint use characteristics among crash-involved child passengers: identifying opportunities to enhance optimal restraint use.

Objective: Our objective was to describe child passenger restraint use in police reported crashes by key child and driver characteristics.

Methods: We used data from 2017-2019 police reported crashes in New Jersey to identify child passengers who: (1) were less than 13 years of age, (2) were in an identified seating location in the first, second, or third vehicle row, and (3) had a known restraint status at the time of the crash. We described prevalence of child restraint use by key child and driver characteristics (child: age, sex, seating position, and crash-reported injury status; driver: age, sex, restraint use, evidenced alcohol use, and crash fault).

Improving identification of crash injuries: Statewide integration of hospital discharge and crash report data.

Objective: The availability of complete and accurate crash injury data is critical to prevention and intervention efforts. Relying solely on hospital discharge data or police crash reports may result in a biased undercount of injuries. Linking hospital data with crash reports may allow for a more robust identification of injuries and an understanding of which populations may be missed in an analysis of one source.

Systematic review of child passenger safety laws and their associations with child restraint system use, injuries and deaths.

Background And Objective: Many countries and all US states have legislation that mandates how children of certain ages and/or sizes should be restrained in vehicles. The objective of the current systematic review was to describe the associations between legislation and three outcomes: child restraint system use, correct child restraint system use and child passenger injuries/deaths.

Methods: Included studies were published between 2004 and 2020 and evaluated associations between child passenger safety laws and the outcomes described above.