Examining the Role of Driver Age on Motor Vehicle Crash Outcomes New York State, Michael Bauer, Motao Zhu & Susan Hardman New York State Department of Health Bureau of Injury Prevention
New York State Data, Police Crash Reports - Police must report all motor vehicle crashes involving an injury or property damage in excess of $1000 to the DMV Hospital Discharge Records - All hospital stays of 24 hours or greater must be reported to the DOH These databases were probabilistically linked using the CODES 2000 software
Today’s Concentration: Driver Age From here on we will be looking at motor vehicle drivers by age (16+) If a crash involved 3 vehicles then we have 3 driver age records from that crash Passenger/pedestrian/bicyclist records and ages are not included
Drivers Involved in MVC by Age NYS Residents, 2000
Driver Deaths in MVC by Age NYS Residents, 2000
Type of Crash by Driver Age NYS Residents, 2000
Type of Vehicle by Driver Age NYS Residents, 2000
Vehicle Year by Driver Age NYS Residents, 2000
Percent Driver Age All RecordsFatal Safety Belt Use Among Drivers NYS Residents, 2000
Number of Occupants NYS Residents, 2000
Contributing Factors Alcohol/Drugs NYS Residents, 2000
Contributing Factors Driver Error NYS Residents, 2000
Contributing Factors Vehicle Malfunction NYS Residents, 2000
Contributing Factors Environmental Factor NYS Residents, 2000
Average Length of Hospital Stay (LOS) Among Drivers NYS Residents, 2000
Average Hospital Charges for Drivers NYS Residents, 2000
Graduated Licensing Laws New York State Statewide Law goes into effect September 2003 Nassau and Suffolk counties already have their own county-level licensing laws Do they work in these counties?
Age of Drivers Involved in MVC NYS Residents, 2000
Summary Age groups & have highest rates of MVC Age groups & 80+ have highest rates of deaths due to MVC Males have higher crash/death rates than females at all ages but the overall age distributions are similar
Summary Age groups 16, 17-19, & 80+ are similar in crash types, vehicle types, vehicle years and safety belt use Age groups 20-24, 25-44, are similar in these characteristics The younger the driver the more likely the vehicle will have multiple occupants
Summary Alcohol/Drug use is a high contributing factor in fatalities among the age groups & (> 35%) Driver error is a high contributing factor in MVC among the age groups 16 & 80+ (> 60%) and in fatalities among all age groups (>50%)
Summary The older the driver the more likely the MVC will result in longer hospitalizations and hospital charges Graduated licensing laws seem to improve safety among 16 year old drivers
Acknowledgements This work was supported, in part, by grants from: The New York State Governor’s Traffic Safety Committee (GTSC) The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) – The NYS CODES Project We thank Julie Eisele PhD. for her contributions