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This investigation addresses and evaluates the injury patterns of car occupants, as a function of air bag deployment with or without belt use. A companion paper provides a comprehensive evaluation of air bag field performance, in comparison with the no restraint,or other restraint conditions,concerning: Cars, Exposure, Occupants, Restraints, & Protection provided by the restraints. The findings reported in this investigation are based exclusively on the data contained in the records of NHTSA's NASS/CDS1988-1992. The investigation focuses on car drivers. Because of the relatively late and limited introduction of air bags, all other light vehicle populations are either not represented, or represented by a very meager sample in the sources cited above.

This investigation encompasses a comprehensive evaluation of air bag field performance, in comparison with the no restraint, or other restraint conditions. The paper at hand addresses: Cars, Exposure, Occupants, Restraints, & Protection provided by the restraints. A companion paper addresses the injury patterns of car occupants. The findings of the investigation are based on two primary sources of national coverage: (i) the field crash experience contained in the records of NHTSA's NASS/CDS 1988-1992; and (ii) the fatal accident experience contained in NHTSA's FARS 1991-1993. The investigation focuses on car drivers. Because of the relatively late and limited introduction of air bags, all other light vehicle populations are either not represented, or represented by a very meager sample in the sources cited above.

This investigation addresses and evaluates: (a) the frequency of air bag deployments in comparison with belt only protection or no restraint, as a function of calendar year and model year; (b) injury and harm rates as a function of crash severity and restraint use and type; (c) restraint effectiveness in reducing fatalities and injuries as a function of restraint, crash severity, type of impact, and car size; (d) the confounding effects of crash severity; (e) injury patterns by injured body region, injuring contact, and injury severity; and (f) variation of injury patterns as a function of crash severity. It is found that restraints, irrespective of type, appear to be more effective at higher injury severities; the lowest casualty rates, and highest effectiveness values, are associated with the use of an air bag plus safety belt, or safety belt without air bag deployment; the air bag even without the concurrent use of a safety belt appears to offer a certain crash protection.