Center for Injury Research and Prevention, Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
Traffic Inj Prev. 2020 Oct 12;21(sup1):S54-S59. doi: 10.1080/15389588.2020.1805445. Epub 2020 Aug 27.
National data suggest drivers who are younger, older, and have lower socioeconomic status (SES) have heightened crash-related injury rates. Ensuring vulnerable drivers are in the safest vehicles they can afford is a promising approach to reducing crash injuries in these groups. However, we do not know the extent to which these drivers are disproportionately driving less safe vehicles. Our objective was to obtain population-based estimates of the prevalence of important vehicle safety criteria among a statewide population of drivers.
We analyzed data from the NJ Safety and Health Outcomes warehouse, which includes all licensing and crash data from 2010-2017. We borrowed the quasi-induced exposure method's fundamental assumption-that non-responsible drivers in clean (i.e., only one responsible driver) multi-vehicle crashes are reasonably representative of drivers on the road-to estimate statewide prevalence of drivers' vehicle characteristics across four driver age groups (17-20; 21-24; 25-64, and ≥65) and quintiles of census tract median household income (n = 983,372). We used NHTSA's Product Information Catalog and Vehicle Listing platform (vPIC) to decode the VIN of each crash-involved vehicle to obtain model year, presence of electronic stability control (ESC), vehicle type, engine horsepower, and presence of front, side, and curtain air bags.
The youngest and oldest drivers were more likely than middle-aged drivers to drive vehicles that were older, did not have ESC, and were not equipped with side airbags. Additionally, across all age groups drivers of higher SES were in newer and safer vehicles compared with those of lower SES. For example, young drivers living in lowest-income census tracts drove vehicles that were on average almost twice as old as young drivers living in highest-income tracts (median [IQR]: 11 years [6-14] vs. 6 years [3-11]).
Vehicle safety is an important component of seminal road safety philosophies that aim to reduce crash fatalities. However, driver groups that are overrepresented in fatal crashes-young drivers, older drivers, and those of lower SES-are also driving the less safe vehicles. Ensuring drivers are in the safest car they can afford should be further explored as an approach to reduce crash-related injuries among vulnerable populations.
国家数据表明，年轻、年老和社会经济地位较低（SES）的驾驶员发生与碰撞相关的受伤率更高。确保弱势驾驶员能够驾驶他们能够负担得起的最安全车辆，是减少这些群体碰撞受伤的一种有前途的方法。然而，我们不知道这些驾驶员在多大程度上驾驶了不安全程度更高的车辆。我们的目的是获得全州范围内驾驶员群体的重要车辆安全标准流行率的基于人群的数据估计。
我们分析了来自 NJ Safety and Health Outcomes 仓库的数据，其中包括 2010 年至 2017 年期间所有的驾驶执照和碰撞数据。我们借鉴了准诱发暴露方法的基本假设，即在清洁（即只有一名负责任的驾驶员）多车碰撞中的非负责任驾驶员合理地代表了道路上的驾驶员，以估计全州范围内四个驾驶员年龄组（17-20 岁；21-24 岁；25-64 岁和≥65 岁）和人口普查区中位数家庭收入五分位数（n=983372）中驾驶员车辆特征的流行率。我们使用 NHTSA 的产品信息目录和车辆清单平台（vPIC）对每辆涉及碰撞的车辆的 VIN 进行解码，以获得车型年份、电子稳定控制系统（ESC）的存在、车辆类型、发动机马力以及前、侧和帘式安全气囊的存在。
与中年驾驶员相比，最年轻和最年长的驾驶员更有可能驾驶较旧、没有 ESC 且未配备侧安全气囊的车辆。此外，在所有年龄组中，SES 较高的驾驶员驾驶的车辆更新且更安全，而 SES 较低的驾驶员则相反。例如，居住在收入最低的普查区的年轻驾驶员所驾驶的车辆的平均车龄几乎是居住在收入最高的普查区的年轻驾驶员的两倍（中位数[IQR]：11 年[6-14]比 6 年[3-11]）。
车辆安全是旨在减少碰撞死亡的重要道路安全理念的重要组成部分。然而，在致命碰撞中占比较高的驾驶员群体，如年轻驾驶员、年长驾驶员和 SES 较低的驾驶员，也在驾驶较不安全的车辆。应进一步探讨确保驾驶员能够驾驶他们能够负担得起的最安全汽车的方法，作为减少弱势人群与碰撞相关伤害的一种手段。
