Incidence of law enforcement officer fatalities related to motor vehicle accidents

Abstract

A recent FBI report indicates that motor vehicle accidents (MVA) account for 71% of accidental law enforcement officer (LEO) fatalities. To better understand the factors surrounding these fatalities, a review of cases reported to the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP) was conducted. A total of 738 MVA fatalities over ten years were included in this analysis. When comparing younger (<34 years) to older officers (≥ 35 years), there was a statistically significant difference with more younger officers reported to have been going at a high rate of speed at the time of the accident (p = 0.011) and were involved more often in single car accidents (p = 0.0207). The data also indicated a fatality rate of 5.4 fatalities per 100,000 officers annually; twice that of other professionals involving high speed operations. Even given the downward trend of MVA fatalities, policy changes and training to help reduce these number of fatalities is warranted.

Keywords:

• Motor vehicle accident
• law enforcement
• fatality

Acknowledgements

First and foremost, the authors would like to thank all of the officers how gave their lives in service along with Chris Cosgriff, Executive Director of the Officer Down Memorial Page (ODMP). The authors would like to acknowledge Ashley Ishigo, Mayumi Ishikawa, and Lauren Chase for the assistance in the data collection. They would also like to thank Nana Ama Bafoe for assistance with the statistical analyses.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).