Citation

Lauer AR. Highw. Res. Board bull. 1952; 60: 25-35.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1952, National Research Council (U.S.A.), Highway Research Board)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

A study of 7,692 Iowa drivers sampled from the drivers license files was made to answer two fundamental questions: Are reported accidents equally distributed among the population, age and number of licensees? Are accidents distributed equally among licensed drivers when mileage is held constant? A number of secondary questions were posed, the answers to which may be summarized in the following conclusions subject to the nature and limitations of the study: (1) there is a preponderance of evidence that male drivers 30 and under contribute very heavily to the accident total. The differences from 18 to 23 are highly significant, (2) male drivers spend 5 years before improvement in their reported accident record appears. Women improve their record from the beginning of their driving period, (3) women differ from men at various age levels with respect to accidents reported against them. They drive much fewer miles a year than men and hold only about 25 percent of the licenses. They do about 10 percent of the driving and have about 9 percent of the accidents reported to the state. The chi-square test of men's and women's reported accidents was not significant, being 1.818, with a slight advantage in favor of women, (4) there is little correspondence for equal population areas, graded from most-dense to least-dense populations, between reported accidents in these areas. There tends to be an excess of accidents reported in larger cities and deficiency of reporting in sparsely settled districts, counties and areas, (5) the techniques used are suggested for spotting various conditions and situations which may be related to highway accidents, (6) both the primary and corollary hypotheses set up for testing are rejected and the results would suggest a careful analysis of accident conditions within a state be made and used as the basis for a systematic highway accident reduction program, (7) one of the most serious problems is that of youthful male drivers. Whether the answer is probational licenses, driver education, closer surveillance and stricter enforcement, governors on cars, or other means is beyond the realm of this investigation. It appears that something will need to be done, since a reasonable estimate would indicate the reduction of at least 10 percent in automobile fatalities by bringing accidents of men below 30 down to the average of other ages.