1998 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey. Volume 1, Methodology Report

Boyle, John M., 1947-; Sharp, Kevin, M.A. · 2000 · ROSA P / United States. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

archive: archived pipeline: cataloged verified

Get this paper ↗ (full text — opens at the source; we link to it, we don't host it)

Summary

This document serves as the methodology report for the 1998 Motor Vehicle Occupant Safety Survey, a biennial study initiated in 1994 and administered by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The survey aims to collect data on attitudes, knowledge, and behaviors regarding occupant protection and highway safety, including seat belt usage, child safety seats, airbags, helmet use, and crash injury experiences. The field period ran from November 5, 1998, to January 12, 1999. The study employed a telephone-based design using two distinct questionnaires, each administered to a national probability sample of approximately 4,000 respondents aged 16 and older. The sampling frame utilized a modified stratified random digit dialing (RDD) method, stratified by ten NHTSA regions based on Census population estimates to ensure geographic representativity. Each sample consisted of a cross-sectional component (3,000 respondents) and an oversample of young adults aged 16–39 (1,000 respondents) to facilitate detailed analysis of this demographic. Within households, a single eligible respondent was selected using the "most recent/next birthday" method to minimize temporal bias. Interviews were conducted in English and Spanish, with bilingual interviewers handling cases where language barriers were encountered. Data collection involved rigorous screening and callback protocols, including a minimum of five contact attempts per number. Refusal conversion scripts were employed to mitigate non-response bias. For Version 1 (seat belt issues), 30,620 numbers were dialed, resulting in 4,094 completed interviews and a participation rate of 79.6%. For Version 2 (child safety seat issues), 29,592 numbers were dialed, yielding 4,121 completed interviews and a participation rate of 81.2%. Significant portions of dialed numbers were excluded due to being non-residential, disconnected, or non-working. To correct for sampling biases, including unequal selection probabilities due to multiple telephone lines per household and disproportionate age sampling, a multi-stage weighting process was applied. Weights adjusted for household telephone counts, eligible respondent counts within households, and demographic distributions based on 1998 Census projections. The report establishes the statistical validity and procedural rigor of the 1998 survey data, providing the necessary framework for interpreting subsequent findings on motor vehicle occupant safety. By detailing the sampling design, weighting procedures, and response rates, the document ensures that the resulting national estimates are unbiased and generalizable to the U.S. adult population. This methodology supports NHTSA’s ongoing efforts to assess public compliance with and attitudes toward traffic safety laws.

Key finding

The survey methodology achieved participation rates of 79.6 percent for the seat belt usage module and 81.2 percent for the child safety seat module using a stratified random digit dialing approach.

Methodology

survey

Sample size: 4000

Provenance

The full processing record for this entry. Every stage of this paper's journey through the pipeline is logged — what ran, with which tool and model, how many attempts it took, and when it last completed. Discovered via bulk_ingest_rosap on 2026-05-23 (6 acquisition events logged).

Summary generated by qwen3.6-27b-prismaquant on 2026-06-10; verification: verified.

Topics

Ranked by relevance to this paper. Hover a topic for its definition.

• causation analyses
• incidence prevalence
• induced exposure

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: observational prevalence