FATALITIES FROM NONUSE OF SEAT BELTS AND HELMETS IN GREECE - A NATIONWIDE APPRAISAL

It has been established that seat belt use by car occupants and helmet use by motorcycle riders substantially reduces the risk of serious an d fatal injuries following accidents. No study, however, has evaluated the motor vehicle deaths that could be prevented in Greece by general use of these devices, even though this country has the highest mortal ity from motor vehicle accidents in the European Union. We have estima ted the odds ratios (OR) for death rather than injury in a motor vehic le accident by seat belt use among occupants of passenger cars or helm et use among motorcycle riders, using a nationwide database in which p ersons killed or injured in road traffic accidents in 1985 and 1994 we re recorded. The study base included 910 dead and 19511 injured person s for 1985 and 1203 dead and 22186 injured persons for 1994. The OR an d 95% confidence intervals (CI) for death rather than injury was 0.69 (CI: 0.58 to 0.81, p<10(-5)) for seat belt users versus nonusers and 0 .64 (CI: 0.51 to 0.81; p<10(-3)) for helmet users versus non-users. Th ere was evidence that the protective effect of these passive safety de vices increased from 1985 to 1994 probably reflecting technological im provements. The proportion of all deaths that could have been avoided if all car occupants used seat belts was estimated to 27%, whereas 38% of motorcycle deaths could have been avoided if all motorcycle riders used helmets. These proportions translate to about 500 deaths per yea r, mostly deaths among young men. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science Ltd. All r ights reserved.