OBJECTIVE To examine the public health messages conveyed by newspaper coverage of fatal motor vehicle crashes and determine the extent to which press coverage accurately reflects real risks and crash trends. METHODS Crash details were extracted from two years of newspaper coverage of fatal crashes in four Midwestern cities in the United States. Details and causal factors identified by reporte...

Per vehicle crash involvement rates were compared for otherwise identical vehicle models with and without electronic stability control (ESC) systems. ESC was found to affect single-vehicle crashes to a greater extent than multiple-vehicle crashes, and crashes with fatal injuries to a greater extent than less severe crashes. Based on all police-reported crashes in 7 states over 2 years, ESC redu...

OBJECTIVE The price of gasoline has been found to be negatively associated with traffic crashes in a limited number of studies. However, most of the studies have focused either on fatal crashes only or on all crashes but measured over a very short time period. In this study, we examine gasoline price effects on all traffic crashes by demographic groups in the state of Alabama from 1999 to 2009....

This study identified casualty crash types for which teen drivers experience excess risk relative to adults. Michigan State Police crash records were used to examine casualty crashes in two statewide populations of drivers who experienced at least one crash from 1989-1996 (pre-graduated driver licensing in Michigan): teens (ages 16-19) and adults (ages 45-65). Rates and rate ratios (RR) based o...

INTRODUCTION Daylight saving time (DST), implemented as an energy saving policy, impacts many other aspects of life; one is road safety. Based on vehicle crash data in Minnesota from 2001 to 2007, this paper evaluates long- and short-term effects of DST on daily vehicle crashes. METHOD To provide evidence to explain the causes of more/fewer crashes in DST, we examine the impact of DST on cras...

Objective – Public concern has arisen about the reliability of front airbags because Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data indicate many nondeployed airbags in fatal frontal crashes. However, the accuracy of airbag deployment, the variable in question, is uncertain. This study aimed to provide more certain estimates of nondeployment incidence in fatal frontal crashes. Methods – Fatally...

OBJECTIVE Public concern has arisen about the reliability of front air bags because Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) data indicate many nondeployed air bags in fatal frontal crashes. However, the accuracy of air bag deployment, the variable in question, is uncertain. This study aimed to provide more certain estimates of nondeployment incidence in fatal frontal crashes. METHODS Fatall...

 Although fraction of PDO and non-fatal injury-causing crashes are very small for rural areas, almost half the fatal crashes occurs in rural areas.  Majority of crashes occurred in occurred in normal driving conditions but severe crashes were associated with factors like inattention, speeding, and driving under influence.  Total number of crashes, number of injuries, and number of PDO crashe...

INTRODUCTION Published studies investigating the role of driver sleepiness in road crashes in low and middle-income countries have largely focused on heavy vehicles. We investigated the contribution of driver sleepiness to four-wheel motor vehicle crashes in Fiji, a middle-income Pacific Island country. METHOD The population-based case control study included 131 motor vehicles involved in cra...