Citation

Lefeve BA. Highw. Res. Board bull. 1956; 120: 6-30.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1956, National Research Council (U.S.A.), Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Accident experience is related to speed habits and other driver characteristics. All highway accident cases of record from october 1949 through 1953 maintained by the new york state motor vehicle bureau were examined. Various driver vehicle characteristics were combined for comparative analysis and the relation of accidents to road and light conditions and accident type are discussed. It appears that faster drivers have more accidents than slower drivers, especially when judged by their speeds in the afternoon, and that drivers who have very short headways in the morning have more accidents than those who do not. Higher accident rates are associated with younger drivers, larger amounts of travel, and newer cars. The majority of the accidents of record occurred on dry road surfaces, during daylight, and involved other vehicles. A home-interview questionnaire was designed for the drivers to furnish information related to those medical and social characteristics associated with accidents. Comparative analysis of these human factors for the accident and no-accident groups of drivers are presented. Interview data established that: (1) accident drivers are difinitely an older group of people and do more driving per year than the no-accident drivers, (2) nearly half of the drivers in each group, both accident and no- accident drivers, claim they don't get drowsy while driving, (3) fewer than 10% in each group claim any difficulty in hearing, (4) fewer than 3% in each group claim any emotional illness history, (5) of the accidents described to interviewers, about 2/3 occurred on working days and 1/3 on days off from work, (6) nearly 90% of the accidents reported occurred on routes traveled frequently, and (7) the accidents per driver of the accident group have a life-time rate of 1.8 accidents per driver while the no-accident group drivers have a life-time accident rate of 0.8 accidents per driver.