<font size="-1" face="arial, verdana, helvetica"> On the Road to Improving Traffic Safety </font>

In 2002, 42,815 people died and 3 million were injured in more than 6 million crashes on American roads, streets and highways, at a cost of more than $230 billion. This may seem a huge toll, but the number of fatalities per 100 million vehicle miles has actually declined steadily for 10 years and is now at an all-time low. [1] Nevertheless, a focus on driver factors can reduce deaths and injuries even more.

Dangers of Aging Drivers?

Some functional abilities involved in driving, like vision, reaction and cognitive processing times, decline with age, but older people are generally underrepresented in crashes. However, they are more likely to die in a crash than the middle-aged because they are frailer and suffer more chest injuries and medical complications. [2] Screening and education may help older drivers and their families. Across-the-board restrictions on all old drivers are inappropriate, says Jane Stutts, Ph.D., associate director of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center. “Regardless of age, what counts is that driver’s individual capabilities." [3]

There’s no one culprit making the roads dangerous. The refrain may be familiar, but much of the death and injury from automobile crashes is still attributable to lack of seat belt use, alcohol and driver drowsiness and distraction.

In the Driver's Seat

Driver behavior factors such as seat belt use, getting distracted and driving under the influence of alcohol or while tired play a big part in motor vehicle safety.

Overall seat belt use rose to 75 percent nationwide by 2002. Each year, 7,000 lives could be saved if all passengers wore seat belts all the time, says Bella Dinh-Zarr, Ph.D., M.P.H., director of traffic safety policy at AAA. “Most people fail to buckle up because they forget or think it’s inconvenient just for a quick trip to the store.”

Most seat belt laws apply only to front-seat passengers. However, when back-seat passengers don’t use seat belts, they not only endanger themselves but can increase risk of death or injury to front seat passengers by 20 percent. Teenagers have especially high crash risk but low seat belt use. [15]

Even if they buckle up, drivers too often let their attention wander from the road. Besides cell phones, drivers get distracted by radios, DVD players, food, small children and even new computerized navigation systems installed in some cars, says Mike Goodman, Ph.D., a human engineering psychologist at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

To understand real-world driving behavior, Goodman has outfitted 100 vehicles with five cameras, a radar system and sensors to measure braking, steering and acceleration. The resulting data may reveal better ways to alert a driver before crashes occur. The study is not yet complete, but Goodman says he is amazed at the many close calls and crashes, most of which were not reported to the police.

“These are not the kind of things you’d think people would do if they knew they were being filmed,” he says.

“Both distracted driving and drowsy driving are significantly underreported, since there’s no objective measure as there is for blood-alcohol levels,” says Jane Stutts, Ph.D., associate director of the University of North Carolina Highway Safety Research Center in Chapel Hill. “People do both all the time, so they don’t think it’s dangerous.”

Paul Rau, Ph.D., of NHTSA, tracks drowsiness in truck drivers using an infrared sensor that tracks when the driver’s eyelids are closed.

“When you become drowsy, you underestimate the passage of time,” says Rau. “Drivers are bad estimators of their level of alertness. They’ll run off the road before they realize how sleepy they are.”

Despite gains during the last decade, alcohol still accounts for up to 40 percent of fatalities each year, Dinh-Zarr says.

“One third of drivers arrested for [driving while intoxicated] are repeat offenders,” she says. “And two-thirds of drunk drivers who died in crashes had 0.15 blood alcohol level, almost twice the legal limit [.08 in many states] and equal to seven or eight beers in an hour."

National Transportation Safety Board
Elly Martin
Public Information Officer
(202) 366-9550
Elly.Martin@nhtsa.dot.gov

Judith Lee Stone, President
Advocates for Highway and Auto Safety
(202) 408-1711
jstone@saferoads.org

Jane C. Stutts, Ph.D.
Highway Safety Research Center
University of North Carolina
(919) 962-8717
jane_stutts@unc.edu