David F. Preusser

FATAL CRASH RISK FOR OLDER DRIVERS AT INTERSECTIONS

Risk of fatal crash involvement was calculated for older drivers relative to drivers aged 40-49 in the United States during the years 1994-1995. The results indicated that drivers ages 65-69 were 2.26 times more at risk for multiple-vehicle involvements at intersections compared with 1.29 times more at risk in all other situations. The comparable figures for drivers aged 85 and older were 10.62 for multiple-vehicle involvements at intersections compared with 3.74 for all other situations. The relative crash risk was particularly high for older drivers at uncontrolled and stop sign-controlled locations; when traveling straight or when just starting to enter the intersection; and when the specific behavioral error in the crash was failure to yield. Countermeasures will likely involve reducing or simplifying the need to detect and evaluate moving traffic coming from the left and right when at intersections. This can be accomplished by traffic signals with protected left turns, four-way stop signs, and one-way streets. Whereas such devices involve significant cost in terms of dollars and travel delay, their cost-effectiveness may have to be revisited as the United States population continues to age.

The effect of teenage passengers on the fatal crash risk of teenage drivers

Fatal crash-involved drivers of passenger vehicles were identified in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for the period 1990 through 1995. Each driver was categorized as being alone in the vehicle at the time of the crash or with one or more passengers. Drivers at fault or responsible for crash occurrence were defined as all drivers involved in a single-vehicle crash, or drivers in multiple-vehicle crashes who were coded in the Fatality Analysis Reporting System as committing one or more driver errors. The results indicated that passenger presence was associated with proportionately more at-fault fatal crashes for drivers aged 24 and younger, were a neutral factor for drivers aged 25-29, and were associated with fewer at-fault involvements for drivers aged 30 and older. Relative risk of fatal crash involvement was particularly high for teenage drivers traveling, day or night, with two or more teenage passengers. Additional research is needed to determine how the added risk associated with teenage passengers riding with teenage drivers can be reduced or eliminated.

Effect of Florida's graduated licensing program on the crash rate of teenage drivers.

On 1 July 1996, Florida instituted a graduated licensing program for drivers younger than age 18. For the first 3 months, holders of learners licenses are not allowed to drive at all between 19:00 and 06:00 h; thereafter, they may drive until 22:00 h. Learners licenses must be held for 6 months prior to eligibility for the intermediate license. Sixteen-year-old intermediate license holders are not permitted to drive unsupervised from 23:00 to 06:00 h, 17 year-olds from 01:00 to 06:00 h. All drivers younger than 18 have strict limits on the number of traffic violations they can accumulate and, effective 1 January 1997, all drivers younger than 21 are subject to a zero tolerance law for drinking and driving. Florida crash data for 1995-1997 were obtained and compared with similar data from Alabama, a state that borders Florida but does not have graduated licensing. For 15, 16, and 17 year-olds combined, there was a 9% reduction in the fatal and injury crash involvement rate in Florida during 1997, the first full year of graduated licensing, compared with 1995. On a percentage basis, crashes declined most among 15 year-olds, followed by 16 year-olds and then 17 year-olds. Reductions were not seen among Alabama teenagers nor among 18 year-olds in Florida.

Classifying urban crashes for countermeasure development.

Efforts to reduce urban crash rates have been hampered by a lack of information about motor vehicle crash types. The present study is based on a systematic sample of 4,526 police crash reports from four urban areas. The sample was weighted to give each area equal representation. Diagrams and narrative descriptions from each report were reviewed, and the most common crash types based on precrash driver/vehicle behavior, were identified. Fourteen crash types were defined, and five of these were found to account for 76% of all crash events and 83% of injury crashes. Although the rank order of the five types differed from city to city, they accounted for the vast majority (69%-81%) of the crashes in each. Potential countermeasures are discussed based on the predominant crash types identified in this study. For example, ran traffic control crashes, the most common types, might be reduced by changes in signal timing, providing all-red signal intervals, increasing sign visibility, and increasing sight distances.

Sales of alcohol to underage purchasers in three New York counties and Washington, D.C.

A study was conducted in which young males, under the legal alcohol purchase age of 21, attempted to purchase beer at grocery stores and other retail outlets. Underage purchases were attempted at a sample of stores in Washington, D.C.; Westchester County, New York: and Albany and Schenectady counties, New York. Beer was sold to the underage purchasers at 97 percent of the Washington, D.C. stores, 80 percent of the Westchester County stores, and 44 percent of the Albany and Schenectady stores, despite the fact that such sales are illegal. Beer was more likely to be sold to the underage purchasers at smaller neighborhood stores in urban areas. Sales were least likely in Albany, which experienced recent police enforcement of the alcohol purchase age laws. Vigorous enforcement of the minimum purchase age laws is needed to reverse the current national trend toward more alcohol-related highway fatalities among youth.

Night driving restrictions for youthful drivers: a literature review and commentary

The research literature on night driving curfews is reviewed. Driving at night involves high risk, particularly for young beginners. Although only about 15 percent of the total miles of 16–I7-year-old drivers occur between 9 p.m. and 6 a.m., about 40 percent of their fatal crashes take place during these hours. Curfews that limit recreational driving at night without an adult have been found to substantially reduce nighttime crashes. Parents of teenagers strongly endorse curfews and favor earlier starting times than prevail in most jurisdictions with curfews. A night driving curfew is an essential com- ponent of graduated licensing, a system that phases in young beginners to full-privilege licensure, limiting initial driving to lower-risk situations.

Crash involvements of 16-year-old drivers

Abstract All reported crashes—property damage, nonfatal injury, and fatal—estimated for 1993 in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administrations General Estimates System were examined for 16-year-old drivers. Results were compared to the crash involvements of other teenagers, older drivers, and fatal injury crash involvements as tabulated by the Fatal Accident Reporting System. Sixteen-year-olds were more likely than other teenagers and older drivers to be involved in single-vehicle crashes, and to be in crashes between 6 p.m. and 11:59 p.m. They were also more likely to have been charged with a moving violation and to have been culpable for the crash. Sixteen-year-old drivers in crashes, compared with other teenage drivers, were proportionately more likely to be female and to be accompanied by other teenage passengers. These differences among 16-year-olds, other teenagers, and older drivers are also found when only fatal crashes are considered. Characteristics of the crashes of 16-year-olds can be used as a guide in establishing licensing policies for initial license holders.

Characteristics of belted and unbelted drivers.

Drivers who had been observed wearing or not wearing shoulder belts were compared using vehicle registration data, driver records, and telephone interviews. The observations were made on the New York Thruway during a special seat belt publicity and enforcement program, which achieved a 75% overall belt use. The results showed that those drivers who still did not wear a shoulder belt despite New York law and the special Thruway program were more likely to be male, to be driving older vehicles, to have more prior traffic convictions, to have more prior injury crash involvements, and to say they are more likely to take risks than others. Although drivers reported that assessing points against the drivers license for belt law violations could increase belt use, citations for belt use law violations were very rare, and enforcement would probably have to increase before any new penalty could be effective.

Daylight saving time and motor vehicle crashes: the reduction in pedestrian and vehicle occupant fatalities.

Fatal crashes were tabulated for 6-hour periods around sunrise and sunset, from 13 weeks before the fall change to standard time until 9 weeks after the spring change to daylight saving time. Fatal-crash occurrence was related to changes in daylight, whether these changes occurred abruptly with the fall and spring time changes or gradually with the changing seasons of the year. During daylight saving time, which shifts an hour of daylight to the busier evening traffic hours, there were fewer fatal crashes. An estimated 901 fewer fatal crashes (727 involving pedestrians, 174 involving vehicle occupants) might have occurred if daylight saving time had been retained year-round from 1987 through 1991.

Results of a seat belt use law enforcement and publicity campaign in Elmira, New York☆

In New York and other states in which seat belt use laws went into effect in the mid-1980s, belt use rates surged initially, then declined. This pattern of belt use also occurred in Canadian provinces that enacted laws in the mid-1970s; special enforcement programs reversed this trend. In late 1985 a three-week enforcement and publicity program was conducted in Elmira, New York. Belt use rates in Elmira were 49 percent before the program, 77 percent right after, and 66 percent two months later. In Glens Falls, a comparison city without a program, belt use declined from 43 percent to 37 percent during this interval. In a telephone survey after the campaign, Elmira respondents were more likely to say the belt use law was being strictly enforced and were more favorable toward it, compared to Glens Falls respondents. These data indicate that enforcement/publicity programs are an important and feasible method for increasing compliance with belt use laws.