In-vehicle fatalities,seat belts,and compulsory seat belt legislation: The Manitoba experience

Using medical data from the Medical Officer of Health (MOH) the paper presents an exploratory mutivariate statistical analysis of in-vehicle mortality in Manitoba, 1983–85. It is found that total mortality had increased in excess of 31% following the introduction of compulsory seat-belt legislation in April, 1984. It is also found that in-vehicle mortality is related to average age of drivers/occupants, sex of victims, blood alcohol level, and in some cases seat-belt use. Since the data represents a chronological series it is not possible to disentangle the physical effect of seat-belts and the compulsory seat-belt legislation.