Citation

Waller JA. Accid. Anal. Prev. 1975; 7(3): 207-212.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1975, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Owners of a 10% sample of snowmobiles registered in Chittenden County, Vermont, were sent a questionnaire about snowmobile use patterns during the 1971-1972 season, and 85% responded. In addition, driving records were compared for snowmobile owners and non-owners of similar age and sex. Owners were predominantly male and under age 40. They average 460 miles of snowmobile travel per year, much of it at night. Over three-quarters of their machines were made by only 4 of about 60 manufacturers: Arctic Cat, SkiDoo, MotoSki, and SnoJet. Half of the owners had 2 or more machines in the family and 41% belong to snowmobile clubs. There was one loss event (property damage or injury) for every 7000 miles of exposure and one injury event per 16,700 miles. Loss rates per 10,000 miles were Arctic Cat 0.79, SkiDoo 0.79, MotoSki 0.69, SnoJet 5.41, and all other makes combined 3.38. Snowmobile owners, whether with or without mishaps on snowmobiles did not differ significantly from non-owners with respect to highway crashes or traffic citations in the files of the Department of Motor Vehicles.