DOUBLE PAIR COMPARISON - A NEW METHOD TO DETERMINE HOW OCCUPANT CHARACTERISTICS AFFECT FATALITY RISK IN TRAFFIC CRASHES

The method, which uses data from the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS), focuses on two occupants, a 'subject' occupant and an 'other' occupant. The probabilities of a fatality to the subject occupant when that occupant has one or two characteristics are compared. The other occupant serves essentially a normalizing, or exposure estimating, role. The method uses only fatality frequency data - no external exposure information is required, and it is relatively free from uncertain assumptions. It has wide applicability; examples of potential applications include investigating car occupant fatality risk as a function of sex, age, alcohol use or motorcyclist fatality risk as a function of helmet use.