Motor vehicle speed

The U.S. Department of Transportation's Federal Highway Administration review research on traffic speed in 1998.[26] The summary says:

• The evidence shows the risk of having a crash is increased both for vehicles traveling slower than the average speed, and for those traveling above the average speed.

• The risk of being injured increases exponentially with speeds much faster than the median speed.

• The severity/lethality of a crash depends on the vehicle speed change at impact.

• There is limited evidence suggesting lower speed limits result in lower speeds on a system-wide basis.

• Most crashes related to speed involve speed too fast for the conditions.

• More research is needed to determine the effectiveness of traffic calming.

The Road and Traffic Authority (RTA) of the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) asserts speeding (traveling too fast for the prevailing conditions or above the posted speed limit[27]) is a factor in about 40 percent of road deaths.[28] The RTA also say speeding increases the risk of a crash and its severity.[28] On another web page, the RTA qualify their claims by referring to one specific piece of research from 1997, and write "research has shown that the risk of a crash causing death or injury increases rapidly, even with small increases above an appropriately set speed limit."[29]

The contributory factor report in the official British road casualty statistics show for 2006, that "exceeding speed limit" was a contributory factor in 5% of all casualty crashes (14% of all fatal crashes), and "traveling too fast for conditions" was a contributory factor in 11% of all casualty crashes (18% of all fatal crashes).

Driver impairment
Driver impairment describes factors that prevent the driver from driving at their normal level of skill. Common impairments include:

Alcohol
Main article: Driving under the influence
According to the Government of Canada, coroner reports from 2008 suggested almost 40% of fatally injured drivers consumed some quantity of alcohol before the collision

Relative risk of an accident based on
 blood alcohol levels[

Physical impairment
Poor eyesight and/or physical impairment, with many jurisdictions setting simple sight tests and/or requiring appropriate vehicle modifications before being allowed to drive;


Youth
Insurance statistics demonstrate a notably higher incidence of accidents and fatalities among drivers aged in their teens or early twenties, with insurance rates reflecting this data. These drivers have the highest incidence of both accidents and fatalities among all driver age groups, a fact that was observed well before the advent of mobile phones.


Females in this age group exhibit somewhat lower accident and fatality rates than males but still register well above the median for drivers of all ages. Also within this group, the highest accident incidence rate occurs within the first year of licensed driving. For this reason many US states have enacted a zero-tolerance policy wherein receiving a moving violation within the first six months to one year of obtaining a license results in automatic license suspension. No US state allows fourteen year-olds to obtain drivers’ licenses any longer.

Old age
Old age, with some jurisdictions requiring driver retesting for reaction speed and eyesight after a certain age.

Sleep deprivation
Fatigue

Drug use
Including some prescription drugs, over the counter drugs (notably antihistamines, opioids and muscarinic antagonists), and illegal drugs.

Distraction
Research suggests that the driver's attention is affected by distracting sounds such as conversations and operating a mobile phone while driving. Many jurisdictions now restrict or outlaw the use of some types of phone within the car. Recent research conducted by British scientists suggests that music can also have an effect; classical music is considered to be calming, yet too much could relax the driver to a condition of distraction. On the other hand, hard rock may encourage the driver to step on the acceleration pedal, thus creating a potentially dangerous situation on the road.[33]

Combinations of factors
Several conditions can combine to create a much worse situation, for example:

• Combining low doses of alcohol and cannabis has a more severe effect on driving performance than either cannabis or alcohol in isolation,[34] or

• Taking recommended doses of several drugs together, which individually do not cause impairment, may combine to bring on drowsiness or other impairment. This could be more pronounced in an elderly person whose renal function is less efficient than a younger person's.[35]

Thus there are situations when a person may be impaired, but still legally allowed to drive, and becomes a potential hazard to themselves and other road users. Pedestrians or cyclists are affected in the same way and can similarly jeopardize themselves or others when on the road.

Human factors

Human factors in vehicle collisions include all factors related to drivers and other road users that may contribute to a collision. Examples include driver behavior, visual and auditory acuity, decision-making ability, and reaction speed.

Man with visible facial scars resulting
 from a car accident

A 1985 report based on British and American crash data found driver error, intoxication and other human factors contribute wholly or partly to about 93% of crashes.[12]

Drivers distracted by mobile devices had nearly four times greater risk of crashing their cars than those who were not. Dialing a phone is the most dangerous distraction, increasing a drivers’ chance of crashing by 12 times, followed by reading or writing, which increased the risk by 10 times.[14]

An RAC survey of British drivers found that most thought they were better than average drivers; a contradictory result showing overconfidence in their abilities. Nearly all drivers who had been in a crash did not believe themselves to be at fault.[15] One survey of drivers reported that they thought the key elements of good driving were:[16]

• controlling a car including a good awareness of the car's size and capabilities

• reading and reacting to road conditions, weather, road signs and the environment

• alertness, reading and anticipating the behavior of other drivers.

Although proficiency in these skills is taught and tested as part of the driving exam, a 'good' driver can still be at a high risk of crashing because:

...the feeling of being confident in more and more challenging situations is experienced as evidence of driving ability, and that 'proven' ability reinforces the feelings of confidence. Confidence feeds itself and grows unchecked until something happens – a near-miss or an accident.[16]

An AXA survey concluded Irish drivers are very safety-conscious relative to other European drivers. However, this does not translate to significantly lower crash rates in Ireland.[17]

Accompanying changes to road designs have been wide-scale adoptions of rules of the road alongside law enforcement policies that included drink-driving laws, setting of speed limits, and speed enforcement systems such as speed cameras. Some countries' driving tests have been expanded to test a new driver's behavior during emergencies, and their hazard perception.

There are demographic differences in crash rates. For example, although young people tend to have good reaction times, disproportionately more young male drivers feature in accidents,[18] with researchers observing that many exhibit behaviors and attitudes to risk that can place them in more hazardous situations than other road users.[16] This is reflected by actuaries when they set insurance rates for different age groups, partly based on their age, sex, and choice of vehicle. Older drivers with slower reactions might be expected to be involved in more accidents, but this has not been the case as they tend to drive less and, apparently, more cautiously.[19] Attempts to impose traffic policies can be complicated by local circumstances and driver behavior. In 1969 Leeming warned that there is a balance to be struck when "improving" the safety of a road:[20]

Conversely, a location that does not look dangerous may have a high crash frequency. This is, in part, because if drivers perceive a location as hazardous, they take more care. Accidents may be more likely to happen when hazardous road or traffic conditions are not obvious at a glance, or where the conditions are too complicated for the limited human machine to perceive and react in the time and distance available. High incidence of crashes is not indicative of high injury risk. Crashes are common in areas of high vehicle congestion but fatal crashes occur disproportionately on rural roads at night when traffic is relatively light.

This phenomenon has been observed in risk compensation research, where the predicted reductions in accident rates have not occurred after legislative or technical changes. One study observed that the introduction of improved brakes resulted in more aggressive driving,[21] and another argued that compulsory seat belt laws have not been accompanied by a clearly attributed fall in overall fatalities.[22] Most claims of risk compensation offsetting the effects of vehicle regulation and belt use laws has been discredited by research using more refined data.[13]

In the 1990s, Hans Monderman's studies of driver behavior led him to the realization that signs and regulations had an adverse effect on a driver's ability to interact safely with other road users. Monderman developed shared space principles, rooted in the principles of the woonerven of the 1970s. He concluded that the removal of highway clutter, while allowing drivers and other road users to mingle with equal priority, could help drivers recognize environmental clues. They relied on their cognitive skills alone, reducing traffic speeds radically and resulting in lower levels of road casualties and lower levels of congestion.[23]

Some crashes are intended; staged crashes, for example, involve at least one party who hopes to crash a vehicle in order to submit lucrative claims to an insurance company.[24] In the USA in the 1990s, criminals recruited Latin immigrants to deliberately crash cars, usually by cutting in front of another car and slamming on the brakes. It was an illegal and risky job, and they were typically paid only $100. Jose Luis Lopez Perez, a staged crash driver, died after one such maneuver, leading to an investigation that uncovered the increasing frequency of this type of crash Read more...

Causes

A 1985 study by K. Rumar, using British and American crash reports as data, suggested 57% of crashes were due solely to driver factors, 27% to combined roadway and driver factors, 6% to combined vehicle and driver factors, 3% solely to roadway factors, 3% to combined roadway, driver, and vehicle factors, 2% solely to vehicle factors, and 1% to combined roadway and vehicle factors.[12] Reducing the severity of injury in crashes is more important than reducing incidence and ranking incidence by broad categories of causes is misleading regarding severe injury reduction. Vehicle and road modifications are generally more effective than behavioral change efforts with the exception of certain laws such as required use of seat belts, motorcycle helmets and graduated licensing of teenagers

Health effects

Psychological

Following some collisions long lasting psychological problems may occur.[11] These issues may make those who have been in a crash afraid to drive again. In some cases, the psychological trauma may affect individuals' ability to work and take on family responsibilities.

Physical
A number of physical injuries can commonly result from the blunt force trauma caused by an accident, ranging to bruising and contusions to catastrophic physical injury (e.g., paralysis)

Terminology

See also: Road collision types

Traffic collisions can be classified by general type. Types of collision include head-on, road departure, rear-end, side collisions, and rollovers.

A traffic collision from 1952

Many different terms are commonly used to describe vehicle collisions. The World Health Organization use the term road traffic injury,[4] while the U.S. Census Bureau uses the term motor vehicle accidents (MVA),[5] and Transport Canada uses the term "motor vehicle traffic collision" (MVTC).[6] Other common terms include auto accident, car accident, car crash, car smash, car wreck, motor vehicle collision (MVC), personal injury collision (PIC), road accident, road traffic accident (RTA), road traffic collision (RTC), road traffic incident (RTI), road traffic accident and later road traffic collision, as well as more unofficial terms including smash-up, pile-up, and fender bender.

A rolled over box truck being
 handled by firefighters in Jakarta, Indonesia

Some organizations have begun to avoid the term "accident". Although auto collisions are rare in terms of the number of vehicles on the road and the distance they travel, addressing the contributing factors can reduce their likelihood. For example, proper signage can decrease driver error and thereby reduce crash frequency by a third or more.[7] That is why these organizations prefer the term "collision" to "accident". In the UK the term "incident" is displacing "accident" in official and quasi-official use.[8][9]

Historically in the United States, use of terms other than "accidents" had been criticized for holding back safety improvements, based on the idea that a culture of blame may discourage the involved parties from fully disclosing the facts, and thus frustrate attempts to address the real root causes

Traffic collision

A traffic collision, also known as a motor vehicle collision (MVC), traffic accident, motor vehicle accident, car accident, automobile accident, road traffic collision, road traffic accident, wreck, car crash, or car smash occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree or utility pole. Traffic collisions may result in injury, death and property damage.

A head-on collision involving two vehicles

Classification and external resources

Specialty Emergency medicine
ICD-10 V89.2 or V99
ICD-9-CM E810 - E819
MeSH D000063

A number of factors contribute to the risk of collision, including vehicle design, speed of operation, road design, road environment, and driver skill, impairment due to alcohol or drugs, and behavior, notably speeding and street racing. Worldwide, motor vehicle collisions lead to death and disability as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals involved.

Road injuries occurred in about 54 million people in 2013.[1] This resulted in 1.4 million deaths in 2013, up from 1.1 million deaths in 1990.[2] About 68,000 of these occurred in children less than five years old.[2] Almost all high-income countries have decreasing death rates, while the majority of low-income countries have increasing death rates due to traffic collisions. Middle-income countries have the highest rate with 20 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, 80% of all road fatalities by only 52% of all vehicles. While the death rate in Africa is the highest (24.1 per 100,000 inhabitants), the lowest rate is to be found in Europe (10.3)

Contents  

1 Terminology

2 Health effects
        2.1 Psychological
        2.2 Physical

3 Causes
        3.1 Human factors
        3.2 Road design
        3.3 Vehicle design and maintenance

4 Prevention
        4.1 United Nations

5 Epidemiology
        5.1 Crash rates
        5.2 Fatality

6 History

7 Society and culture
        7.1 Economic costs
        7.2 Legal consequences
        7.3 Art

8 See also

9 References

10 External links

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