Motor vehicle crashes and occupant restraint use among Aboriginal populations in BC

BCIRPU’s vision is “to be a leader in the production and transfer of injury prevention knowledge and the integration of evidence-based injury prevention practices into the daily lives of those at risk, those who care for them, and those with a mandate for public health and safety in British Columbia”. [...] Motor vehicle restraints “Restraints in vehicles (e.g., seat belts and safety seats) are designed to limit and control the body’s rate of deceleration during a crash, thus reducing the forces acting on the body’s surface to minimize the differential motion between the skeleton and the internal organs”. [...] The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia (ICBC) provided a list of MVC fatalities from 2003-2005 to the Office of the Chief Coroner of BC. [...] Of the 34 Aboriginal drivers, sixteen (47.0%) were reported to be non-restrained, and 14 of 31 (35.5%) Aboriginal passengers were non-restrained at the time of collision. [...] Similarly, 45.4 percent of occupants under the influence of drugs did not use restraints, and 37.5 percent of occupants that were not under the influence of drugs were unrestrained.