UMTRI Project

Investigations of Crashes Involving Pregnant Occupants

Sponsor: General Motors
Investigator: Kathleen DeSantis Klinich
08/19/1996 - 03/31/1999

To investigate the specific causes and circumstances surrounding fetal losses resulting from maternal involvement in motor-vehicle crashes, forty-two investigations of real-world crashes involving pregnant occupants were conducted. Key features of the resulting database include a range of fetal outcomes, documentation of restraint use (including airbags) and engineering estimates of crash severity. Eight crashes resulted in fetal loss, eight crashes resulted in placental abruption, a direct fetal injury, or extremely premature delivery without fetal loss, six crashes resulted in minor fetal complications, and twenty-one crashes resulted in good fetal outcomes. Results indicate that crash severity had the strongest effect on fetal outcome. Proper restraint use positively affected fetal outcome, providing support for proper use of a three-point belt during pregnancy. Risk estimates for properly restrained pregnant occupants show a much higher level of crash severity associated with a particular level of risk compared to the unrestrained occupants. Related to this is a positive relationship between maternal injury and fetal outcome, indicating that protecting the mother is important for protecting the fetus. Airbags also appear to have a positive effect, and no negative effects of airbags were observed.