American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on March 15, 2008
American Journal of Epidemiology 2008 167(7):885-886; doi:10.1093/aje/kwn052
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LETTERS TO THE EDITOR |
RE: "USING HEAD-ON COLLISIONS TO COMPARE RISK OF DRIVER DEATH BY FRONTAL AIR BAG GENERATION: A MATCHED-PAIR COHORT STUDY"
1 Department of Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
2 Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health and Community Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
3 Harborview Injury Prevention and Research Center, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
4 Department of Pediatrics, School of Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, WA
(e-mail: colson{at}u.washington.edu)
As reported in a recent Journal article, Braver et al. (1) studied head-on crashes of two passenger vehicles and estimated the risk of driver death for sled-certified air bags compared with first-generation air bags. In doing so, they extended our analysis (2) by identifying which vehicles were certified by sled tests (rather than using model year as a marker, as we did) and by including pickup trucks, sport utility vehicles, and minivans as well as cars.
However, Braver et al. stated that our study (2) "estimated the impact of newer styles of frontal air bags on overall risk of front-occupant deaths in motor vehicle crashes rather than the specific effects on deaths in frontal crashes" (1, p. 547). In fact, we did report risk ratios for death comparing second-generation air bags with first-generation air bags in frontal car crashes in tables 2 and 3 of our published study: these risk ratios are summarized in table 1 of this letter. We defined a crash as frontal if the primary impact angle was 11, 12, or 1 o'clock, with 12 o'clock indicating the front of the car, because front air bags are designed to deploy within 30 degrees of the 12-o'clock position (3).
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Braver et al. (1) reported an adjusted risk ratio of 1.04 (95 percent confidence interval: 0.85, 1.29) for driver death in cars with sled-certified air bags compared with first-generation air bags. This value can be compared with our estimate of 0.93 (95 percent confidence interval: 0.79, 1.10) for all front occupants (table 1). We also reported estimates by seat position (driver or passenger) and restraint use (table 1).
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS |
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Conflict of interest: none declared.
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References |
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 TOP References |
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- Braver ER, Kufera JA, Alexander MT, et al. Using head-on collisions to compare risk of driver death by frontal air bag generation: a matched-pair cohort study. Am J Epidemiol (2008) 167:546–52.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Olson CM, Cummings P, Rivara FP. Association of first- and second-generation air bags with front occupant death in car crashes: a matched cohort study. Am J Epidemiol (2006) 164:161–9.
[Abstract/Free Full Text] - Viano DC. Restraint effectiveness, availability and use in fatal crashes: implications to injury control. J Trauma (1995) 38:538–46.[Web of Science][Medline]
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  E. R. Braver, J. A. Kufera, M. T. Alexander, M. Scerbo, K. Volpini, and J. P. Lloyd THE AUTHORS REPLY Am. J. Epidemiol., April 1, 2008; 167(7): 886 - 887. [Full Text] [PDF]
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