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Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025

Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025

Projecting Fatalities in Crashes Involving Older Drivers, 2000-2025

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The other fatality risk concept we project is the “total fatality crash rate,” which is the<br />

total number of fatalities, regardless of age or occupant status, associated with a crash <strong>in</strong><br />

which at least one older driver is <strong>in</strong>volved. The rate of total fatality risk is measured <strong>in</strong> a more<br />

complex fashion than the driver crash rate. Each driver <strong>in</strong> a fatal crash which <strong>in</strong>volves an<br />

older driver is assigned equal responsibility for each fatality. Then, the sum of the fatalities<br />

attributed to each driver is found for a driver’s age-gender-region group. For example, if a<br />

crash <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g three fatalities occurs between a man aged 65 and a woman aged 72, 1.5<br />

fatalities would be attributed to the 65-69 age group for men, and 1.5 fatalities would be<br />

attributed to the 70-74 age group for women, both <strong>in</strong> the respective region of the accident.<br />

If a two-vehicle crash <strong>in</strong>volv<strong>in</strong>g a 67 year old woman and a 45 year old man resulted <strong>in</strong> four<br />

deaths, two of them would be attributed to the 65-69 female age group, and two would be<br />

excluded from the measure as attributable to an age group outside the study. In assign<strong>in</strong>g<br />

responsibility <strong>in</strong> general, an <strong>in</strong>dividual older driver’s contribution to age/gender/region total<br />

equals the number of fatalities divided by the number of drivers <strong>in</strong>volved. The total number<br />

of fatalities attributed to each age-gender-region group is then divided by the annual number<br />

of aggregate miles driven <strong>in</strong> that group, <strong>in</strong> similar fashion to the driver fatality risk measure.<br />

Total fatality risk is also presented <strong>in</strong> terms of number of annual fatalities per 100 million<br />

miles driven. Historical trends <strong>in</strong> our measure of “total risk” mirrored trends <strong>in</strong> the “driver<br />

risk” measure.<br />

The casualty data from the 1983, 1990, and 1995 FARS were used. FARS reports<br />

<strong>in</strong>formation on fatal crashes by state, disaggregated by age <strong>in</strong> one-year <strong>in</strong>crements and by<br />

gender. We aggregated the <strong>in</strong>dividuals to 5-year age groups and the states to Census regions.<br />

Correspond<strong>in</strong>g variables on <strong>in</strong>come, health status, VMT, etc., were created as<br />

age/gender/region averages from NPTS and NHIS data.<br />

The availability of automobile seat belts, beg<strong>in</strong>n<strong>in</strong>g <strong>in</strong> the 1960s and grow<strong>in</strong>g relatively<br />

slowly until well <strong>in</strong>to the 1970s, represents one <strong>in</strong>dependent variable used <strong>in</strong> this equation.<br />

Seat belt use can be viewed as an <strong>in</strong>dicator of technology that shifts the degree of safety<br />

GM Project G.6 8 - 3<br />

October <strong>2000</strong>

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