• Kerrie A Pinkney, Andrew Smith, N Clay Mann, Gary D Mower, Anna Davis, and J Michael Dean.
• Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA, USA. kerrieann.pinkney@lvh.com
• Pediatr Emerg Care. 2006 Jun 1; 22 (6): 402-7.

ObjectiveResearch suggests that children experience driveway back-over injuries at a significant rate and the severity of the resulting injuries differ by type of vehicle. Yet, no US study attempted to quantify "back-over risk" for classes of vehicles because of the difficulties with determining exposure. Using vehicle registration information, we set out to estimate the relative risk of driveway back-over injuries to children by type of vehicle.MethodsDriveway back-over events were identified from state police reports and medical records from the state level 1 pediatric trauma center and compared with vehicle registration information to estimate injury incidence for 4 classes of vehicles (passenger cars, trucks, sport utility vehicles, and minivans) over 6 years in the state of Utah.ResultsReported driveway back-over injuries represent an incidence of 7.09 per 100,000 children (<10 years old) per year. Overall, passenger cars account for 1.62 injuries per 100,000 registered vehicles. Compared with passenger cars, children were 53% more likely to be injured by a truck (P = 0.01) and 2.4 times more likely to be injured by a minivan (P < 0.001). Among children transported to a trauma center, admission (P = 0.01) and need for surgery (P = 0.03) were greater among children backed over by trucks, sport utility vehicles, and minivans compared with passenger cars.ConclusionsFindings suggest that when assessing driveway back-over injuries, larger high-profile vehicles are associated with a higher incidence and severity of injuries when compared with injuries resulting from passenger cars.

15 keywords...

hide…