Instructions:

Indicate whether the driver was ejected from the vehicle and the degree to which they were ejected (if applicable).

Definition:

Indicates whether a driver and/or passenger has been completely or partially thrown from the interior of the motor vehicle, excluding motorcycles, as a result of a crash.

Rationale:

Occupant protection systems prevent or mitigate ejections to various degrees. Analyses of the effectiveness of safety systems depend on information from this data element.

Code Attribute Definition
0 Not Ejected  This attribute is used for persons who are neither totally or partially ejected from the vehicle.
1 Totally Ejected Occupant’s body completely thrown from the motor vehicle as a result of the crash.
2 Partially Ejected Occupant’s body was not completely thrown from the motor vehicle as a result of the impact.
3 Not Applicable This attribute is used for persons who are riding on the exterior of a vehicle or for motorcycle occupants. Exterior of the vehicle includes running boards, roof, fenders and bumpers, but not the bed of pickup trucks, open tail gate or boot of a convertible. This attribute also would apply to any person that is not a motor vehicle occupant.
99 Unknown This attribute is used when it is not known if this occupant was ejected or not from the vehicle. For example, an occupant that has been transported from the scene prior to arrival by law enforcement and information regarding their ejection status is not obtainable from other sources such as EMS or witness statements.

Reminder!

If the driver/passenger was not ejected from the vehicle, please record code 0 (Not Ejected).

In situations where the vehicle is parked and the driver is not present or a hit/run, the driver last name may be entered as UNKNOWN or PARKED, and then this field is exempt and may be left empty.

Accuracy Checks

  • If the Vehicle Configuration Code is ‘motorcycle’ or ‘moped’, then Ejection Code must be ‘not applicable’.
  • If Seating Position is indicated as ‘riding on vehicle exterior’, then Ejection Code is ‘not applicable’.

Other Related Fields

Injury Status

Data Quality Audit Results

Driver
Report Type Acceptable Inconsistent Invalid Empty
Local Police (electronic) 580 97.5% 8 1.3% 7 1.2%
Local Police (paper) 550 90.0% 4 0.7% 1 0.2% 56 9.2%
State Police (electronic) 597 96.3% 2 0.3% 21 3.4%
Total 1727 94.6% 14 0.8% 1 0.1% 84 4.6%
Passenger
Report Type Acceptable Inconsistent Invalid Empty
Local Police (electronic) 118 94.4% 3 2.4% 4 3.2%
Local Police (paper) 136 91.3% 2 1.3% 11 7.4%
State Police (electronic) 66 75.0% 22 25.0%
Total 320 88.4% 5 1.4% 37 10.2%

Driver Ejected is a field that was completed in an acceptable manner in nearly 95 percent of the reports reviewed. However, paper reports submitted by local police left the field empty about 9 percent of the time. The percentage of acceptable reports was almost identical to the percentage found acceptable in the 2008 audit. Law enforcement auditors commented that police often left this field empty if the air bag was not deployed. They stressed the need for education on entering ‘not deployed’, instead of leaving this field empty. Passenger Ejected is a field that was found to be acceptably completed in approximately 88 percent of the reports reviewed. The highest percentage of reports leaving this field empty came from the State Police (25 percent), with both submission types from local police showing much lower numbers (3 percent for electronic and 7 percent for paper). This was true for most passenger fields in this section of the crash report. Some auditors indicated if there were no passenger injuries, this section was often left incomplete.