Preventing motor vehicle crash injuries and deaths: science vs. folklore lessons from history

Abstract

Not long after the beginnings of motorization in the early 1900s, deaths and injuries from motor vehicle crashes became a problem in a number of high-income-countries (HIC)s, especially the United States. With the biggest problem the US led early efforts to address this issue, and for six decades these efforts were based on folklore (ie a body of widely held but false or unsubstantiated beliefs). They were not evaluated, but clearly were unsuccessful as crash deaths and injuries continued to rise. It was not until the 1970s that a broader range of countermeasures began to be adopted and was scientifically evaluated, and as a result, crash deaths and injuries declined. This history has important lessons today for many low-and-middle-income countries that have growing numbers of motor vehicle crash deaths and injuries, many of which are pedestrians and motorcyclists. This is because there continue to be advocates for many of the failed approaches (especially educational) that dominated the early efforts in HICs.

Keywords:

• Traffic safety laws
• safety belts
• crashworthiness
• traffic calming
• modern roundabouts
• speed and red light cameras

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 http://pabook2.libraries.psu.edu/palitmap/DriversEd.html

2 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Road_speed_limits_in_the_United_Kingdom

3 http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/first-drunk-driving-arrest

4 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claire_L._Straith

5 Mainly intended to prevent ejections.

6 Mainly intended to prevent injuries inside vehicles.

7 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clunk_Click_Every_Trip

8 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_helmetreference

9 http://crossroadz.com.au/OzHelmets/Rules-Vic.html

10 Although 5 mph may not seem like a large increase in speed the kinetic energy increases by 36%.

11 https://www.unece.org/fileadmin/DAM/trans/main/wp29/wp29wgs/wp29gen/wp29registry/ECE-TRANS-180a9e.pdf)

12 Electronic Stability Control (ESC), which is based on ABS (see section 3.2.4), was mandated for new passenger vehicles in the US beginning in 2007. The requirement was phased in over several years and applies to all new light vehicles manufactured on or after September 1, 2011.

13 http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/automation-and-crash-avoidance/hldi-research

14 See my paper: “Driver Education: How Effective?” in this issue for a comprehensive review of driver education.

15 http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/impaired-driving/fatalityfacts/impaired-driving

16 See 7.3 above, driver skills vs attitudes.

17 In the US some of the opposition stems from funding mechanisms, which use fine revenues for the installation and operation of the cameras.

18 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycling