J Korean Soc Emerg Med.  2023 Apr;34(2):121-127.

Changes in the incidence of severe damage in the event of a passenger traffic accident after the mandatory safety belt for all seats

• Lee SO
• Cho JS
• Woo JH
• Choi JY
• Jang JH
• Choi WS

Abstract

Objective
In September 2018, the traffic law revision has enforced all passengers in cars to wear seatbelts. Our study aims to investigate the effects of this law revision on fellow passengers involved in car accidents by considering their seatbelt-wearing rate and severity score.
Methods
This study is a retrospective observational study. Data were collected from the Emergency Department-based Injury in-depth Surveillance (for the years 2017 and 2019), Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency. Candidates were patients who visited emergency rooms (ERs) of 23 hospitals from January to December in the years 2017 and 2019. Patients under the age of 15 years or without Excess Mortality Ratio-adjusted Injury Severity Score (EMR-ISS) data or having accidents on highways were excluded.
Results
The total number of patients who visited ERs during the study periods was 91,506 and 14,806 in 2017 and 2019, respectively, and were included in our study. There were more fellow female passengers than male passengers during both the study periods: 5,559 in 2017 (67.9%) and 4,341 in 2019 (66.8%). Compared to 52.2% in 2017, the rate of wearing seatbelts increased to 54.5% in 2019. However, after adjusting for age, sex, use of ambulance, injury time, alcohol use, type of road, and counterpart, multivariate logistic regression revealed that compared to the 2017 group, the odds ratio of severe injuries in the 2019 group was 1.10 (95% confidence interval, 0.98-1.24).
Conclusion
Increased rate of wearing seatbelts after imposing the traffic law revision was not satisfactory. Therefore, it is necessary to tighten regulations on fellow passengers without seat belts and improve awareness through public relations.

Keyword

Seat belts; Traffic accidents; Injury severity score