Validating the representativeness assumption of the quasi-induced exposure method using a national representative field observation survey

Abstract

Objective

The quasi-induced exposure (QIE) method was developed to estimate relative crash risk exposure. A fundamental assumption often made in applying the QIE method is that not-at-fault drivers in clean two-vehicle crashes (i.e., one and only one driver is at-fault) represent the general exposure of the driving population to crash risk in the absence of the intervention being studied. Our study used direct field observation data to test the representativeness of the assumption for not-at-fault drivers obtained from the General Estimating System (GES) crash data, a national crash database in the United States.

Methods

Distributions of driver gender, age group, vehicle type, and time-of-crash among the not-at-fault drivers in clean two-vehicle crashes (D2) and the ones in two-or-more-vehicle crashes (i.e., all not-at-fault drivers) from the GES data were compared to the driving population estimated from the National Occupant Protection Use Survey (NOPUS), a national representative field observation survey.

Results

The gender and vehicle-type distributions of D2 and all not-at-fault drivers were not statistically significantly different from the ones in the NOPUS data. Age-group distributions for both not-at-fault driving populations were marginally similar to the ones estimated from NOPUS.

Conclusion

By system-wide comparisons on gender, age group, vehicle type, and period, our study suggests that the not-at-fault drivers in crash databases with crashes ranging from no injury to fatal injury reflect the general driving population when the collision occurred. Future study should evaluate the representativeness assumption among other important factors, including roadway type, road geometry, and level of urbanization. Our study supports the credibility of applying the QIE method in traffic safety research using crash databases of all crashes with all severities.

Keywords:

• General estimating system
• national occupant protection survey
• multiple-vehicle crashes
• crash risk
• quasi-induced exposure

Acknowledgments

We thank Drs. Melody Davis and Caitlin Pope for their valuable comments on the manuscript. We thank the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for providing the GES and NOPUS to the public.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by the U.S. National Institute of Health (R01HD074594, 2013-2022; R01AG050581, 2015-2020). The funding sources had no role in the design and conduct of the study, collection, management, analysis, and interpretation of the data, preparation, review, or approval of the manuscript, and the decision to submit the manuscript for publication.