Passenger Deaths Research Articles

Influencing Factors for Use of Unmanned Aerial Systems in Support of Aviation Accident and Emergency Response

 Abstract— examine the influencing factors associated with the use of unmanned aerial system (UAS) technology to support aviation accident and emergency response. The ability of first responders to react to an emergency is dependent on the quality, accuracy, timeliness, and usability of information. With aviation accidents such as the Asiana Airlines Flight 214 crash at San Francisco International Airport, the ability to sense and communicate the location of victims may reduce the potential for accidental passenger death. Furthermore, the ability to obtain information enroute to an accident may also to assist to reduce overall response and coordination time of first responders (e.g., Aviation Rescue and Firefighting [ARFF]). By identifying and examining current and potential practices, capabilities, and technology (e.g., human-machine-interface [HMI], human factors, tools, and capability modifiers) a more comprehensive model of the influencing factors is established to further support the growing body of knowledge (i.e., safety, human computer interaction, human-robot systems, socio-economical systems, service and public sector systems, and technological forecasting). A series of recommendations regarding the technology and application are provided to support future development or adaptation of regulations, policies, or future research. Index Terms—unmanned aerial systems, UAS emergency response, UAS aviation accident response, UAS application, UAS HMI, UAS disaster response, UAS situational awareness

자동차 보강재 경량화을 위한 충격 실험장치 개발

본 자동차 충돌사고는 인간이 자동차 문명을 발전시킨 이래 누려온 편의성의 대가이기 때문에 많은 사람들이 충돌사고 시 승객의 사망과 상해를 기술적으로 감소시키기 위해 여러 가지 노력을 기울여 왔다. 도로교통공단 통계자료에 따르면 승용차 충돌사고로 인한 사망자 충 측면충돌사고에 의한 사망자가 정면충돌사고의 사망자보다 많다. 자동차 설계자들은 이에 대응하기 위해 도어 내부에 임팩트 빔(Impact Beam)과 임팩트 프레임(Impact Frame)이라는 보강재를 추가시켜 왔다. 이러한 보강재 개발을 위해 충돌실험은 필수적이다. 충돌실험의 경우 많은 비용과 시간이 소모되게 된다. 본 연구는 임팩터를 떨어뜨려 충격량과 변형량을 얻을 수 있는 실험장치 개발이 목적이다. 경제적 비용을 줄일 수 있는 이상적인 실험장치 구성을 제시하고, 수치해석 값과 실험결과 값을 비교 분석한 결과 충돌 시작 후 3.5E-3sec에서 각각 3.49E-3, 3.99E-3의 변형량을 나타냈다. Reducing the impact of collisions of cars is a major issue for reducing the injury and death of passengers. According to the statistical data of the Road Traffic Authority, the deaths from side collision accidents caused by the collision of passenger cars is greater than the deaths from head-on collision accidents. To accommodate this, vehicle designers have added a reinforcing material called the impact frame and impact beam on the inside of the door. Many experiments are needed to develop the door impact beam. These reinforcements to develop a collision experiment is essential. Collision experiments are costly and time consuming. This study used a drop Impactor to obtain the impulse and a strain experimental device was developed for this purpose. The economic costs were reduced and the ideal experiment device configuration was determined. A comparison of the experimental results with numerical value analysis revealed <TEX>$3.5{\tiimes}10-3sec$</TEX> strain ranging from <TEX>$3.49{\tiimes}10-3$</TEX> to <TEX>$3.99{\tiimes}10-3$</TEX>.

Child passenger deaths involving alcohol-impaired drivers.

Approximately 1 in 5 child passenger deaths in the United States involves an alcohol-impaired driver, most commonly the child's own driver. The objective of this study was to document recent trends and state-specific rates of these deaths. A descriptive analysis of 2001-2010 Fatality Analysis Reporting System data for child passengers aged <15 years killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes. Driver impairment was defined as a blood alcohol concentration of ≥0.08 g/dL. During 2001-2010, 2344 children <15 years were killed in crashes involving at least 1 alcohol-impaired driver. Of these children, 1515 (65%) were riding with an impaired driver. Annual deaths among children riding with an alcohol-impaired driver decreased by 41% over the decade. Among the 37 states included in the state-level analysis, Texas (272) and California (135) had the most children killed while riding with an impaired driver and South Dakota (0.98) and New Mexico (0.86) had the highest annualized child passenger death rates (per 100 000 children). Most (61%) child passengers of impaired drivers were unrestrained at the time of the crash. One-third of the impaired drivers did not have a valid driver's license. Alcohol-impaired driving remains a substantial threat to the safety of child passengers in the United States, and typically involves children being driven by impaired drivers. This risk varies meaningfully among states. To make further progress, states and communities could consider increased use of effective interventions and efforts aimed specifically at protecting child passengers from impaired drivers.

How Have Changes in Front Air Bag Designs Affected Frontal Crash Death Rates? An Update

Objective: Provide updated death rates comparing latest generations of frontal air bags in fatal crashes.Methods: Rates of driver and right-front passenger deaths in frontal crashes per 10 million registered vehicle years were compared using Poisson marginal structural models for passenger vehicles equipped with air bags certified as advanced and compliant (CAC), sled-certified air bags with advanced features, and sled-certified air bags without any advanced features. Analyses of driver death rates were disaggregated by age group, gender, and belt use.Results: CAC air bags were associated with slightly elevated frontal crash death rates for both drivers and right-front passengers compared to sled-certified air bags with advanced features, but the differences were not statistically significant. Sled-certified air bags with advanced features were associated with significant benefits for drivers and for right-front passengers compared to sled-certified air bags without advanced features. CAC air bags were associated with a significant increase in belted driver death rate and a comparable but nonsignificant decrease in unbelted driver death rate compared to sled-certified air bags with advanced features. Sled-certified air bags with advanced features were associated with a nonsignificant 2 percent increase in belted driver death rate and a significant 26 percent decrease in unbelted driver death rate, relative to sled-certified air bags without advanced features.Conclusions: Implementing advanced features in sled-certified air bags was beneficial overall to drivers and right-front passengers with sled-certified air bags. No overall benefit was observed for CAC air bags compared to sled-certified air bags with advanced features. Further study is needed to understand the apparent reduction in belted driver protection observed for CAC air bags.

On-road all-terrain vehicle (ATV) fatalities in the United States

BackgroundThe study was designed to describe the characteristics of all-terrain vehicle (ATV) rider fatalities and fatal crashes involving ATVs that occur on public roads. MethodsInformation on fatal crashes occurring on public roads during the years 2007–2011 was obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS). ResultsThere were 1,701 ATV rider deaths during the 5-year study period, including 1,482 drivers, 210 passengers, and 9 with unknown rider status. An additional 19 non-ATV occupants, primarily motorcyclists, died in crashes with ATVs. About half of the ATV passenger deaths were teenagers or younger, and the majority of passenger deaths were female. Ninety percent of the fatally injured drivers were 16 or older, and 90% were male. The crashes were most likely to occur in relatively rural states, and in rural areas within states. Only 13% of drivers and 6% of passengers killed wore helmets. Forty-three percent of the fatally injured drivers had blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) of 0.08% or greater. Seventy-five percent of the fatal crashes involved single ATVs; 5% involved multiple ATVs but no non-ATV vehicles, and 20% involved ATVs and non-ATVs, usually passenger vehicles. Speeding was reported by police as a contributing factor in the crash for 42% of ATV drivers in single-vehicle crashes and 19% of ATV drivers in multiple-vehicle crashes. Practical applicationsAlthough ATVs are designed exclusively for off-road use, many ATV occupant deaths occur on roads, despite most states having laws prohibiting many types of on-road use. Attention needs to be given to ways to reduce these deaths.

10.5937/zrpfns48-6001 = Concept of accident and injury of air passengers

Despite the efforts from the international community to create an unified liability regime in Private International Air Law, there are still significant hurdles to be overcome. Many essential rules from this legal regime are vague and open to interpretation. The role of judges is crucial in order to give them their intended meaning. Thus, this paper examines jurisprudence concerning carrier liability in case of death or injury of passengers.

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Introduction: Nearly 2.9 billion passengers are transported every year in commercial airline flights, many of whom are children. When a serious medical emergency arises during flight, care is provided by crew members and passenger volunteers with a medical background, frequently in consultation with a specialized remote medical control center. Although in-flight medical emergencies and fatalities are well characterized for adults, data on pediatric subjects are lacking. Methods: We reviewed the records of all in-flight emergencies from January 2010 to June 2013 involving children (ages 0 to 18 years) treated in consultation with the world’s busiest global response center providing remote medical support to commercial airlines. This center is staffed by physicians trained in airline protocols, procedures and in-flight resources. De-identified data were abstracted by one of the authors and analyzed with descriptive statistics. Results: During the study period there were a total of 81,104 in-flight medical emergencies, including 7,573 (9.3%) involving children. There were 10 pediatric deaths (0.13% of all pediatric in-flight emergencies), or 0.025 deaths/million passengers transported. Of these, 5 were males. The overall median age was 3.5 months (range 1 month to 15 years) with 90% younger than 2 years, the age until which children are allowed to travel seated with an adult. Highest health care rank of in-flight responder was physician in 6 cases, crew in 2, nurse in 1 and EMT in 1. An AED was employed in 40% of the cases. Five patients had no previous medical history, with one arresting after developing respiratory distress and 4 found asystolic (including 3 lap infants). Five patients had pre-flight medical conditions, including 2 traveling for medical care (a 6 month-old with unspecified medical issues accompanied by a doctor and a 1 month old with cardiomegaly), a 2 month-old with truncus arteriosus, a 4 month-old with lethargy and a 12 month-old with fever, diarrhea and vomiting. An unscheduled landing (diversion) occurred in 50% of the flights in which a passenger death occurred. Conclusions: Pediatric in-flight medical emergencies rarely result in death, but death is most common in infants and those with a pre-existing medical condition. The high share of fatalities involving children under the age of 2 years (lap infants) is intriguing and warrants further study, particularly as co-sleeping has been implicated in sudden infant death syndrome.

OPTIMAL CHOICE WITHIN A FAULT TOLERANT FLIGHT CONTROL SYSTEM

Safety of aircraft during the flight is one of the most important problems that concerns of all aviation. Failures/faults main elements automatic control system and damages to the external contour of the aircraft by foreign objects always lead to a change the characteristics of the aircraft, direct and indirect economic costs and sometimes to injury or death of passengers and crew. Real-time active fault tolerant control system makes it possible to warn or prevent emergency situations and thus improve safety.

The effect of road and environmental characteristics on pedestrian hit-and-run accidents in Ghana

The number of pedestrians who have died as a result of being hit by vehicles has increased in recent years, in addition to vehicle passenger deaths. Many pedestrians who were involved in road traffic accident died as a result of the driver leaving the pedestrian who was struck unattended at the scene of the accident. This paper seeks to determine the effect of road and environmental characteristics on pedestrian hit-and-run accidents in Ghana. Using pedestrian accident data extracted from the National Road Traffic Accident Database at the Building and Road Research Institute (BRRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Ghana, a binary logit model was employed in the analysis. The results from the estimated model indicate that fatal accidents, unclear weather, nighttime conditions, and straight and flat road sections without medians and junctions significantly increase the likelihood that the vehicle driver will leave the scene after hitting a pedestrian. Thus, integrating median separation and speed humps into road design and construction and installing street lights will help to curb the problem of pedestrian hit-and-run accidents in Ghana.

Defoe's America (review)

Reviewed by: Defoe's America Shawn Thomson (bio) Defoe's America by Dennis Todd New York: Cambridge University Press, 2010. xii+230pp. US$95. ISBN 978-0-521-19581-2. In William Bradford's Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-50), the servants John Howland and William Butten receive brief but telling mentions that serve to punctuate the extremes of indentured servitude in America. Howland, whose life is saved after he is thrown from the Mayflower, becomes in time a wealthy member of the church. In contrast, Butten was briefly mentioned as the only passenger death of the Mayflower, and a minor one at that. These two figures, one lost in the literal brine of history, and the other, the great populator (eighty-eight grandchildren) and lifeblood of the Boston Brahmins, show the promise of wealth and social position and the stark reality of indentured servitude in the New World. Dennis Todd examines the figural and literal meanings of the indentured servant in Daniel Defoe's novels Robinson Crusoe, Colonel Jack, and Moll Flanders. Todd flips between the spiritual dimension of the indentured servant's life of imposed discipline, hard work, and persistence and the shifting meaning of the servant within "the social, legal, and economic realities of the New World" (13). Todd's view of these two seemingly oppositional approaches as two sides of the same coin makes this work a rich examination of Defoe's belief in the [End Page 278] indentured servant as a "symbol of the voluntary subordination of the self " (157). In chapter 1, Todd examines how Defoe shapes the emblematic meaning of plantation servitude of Crusoe's years of toil and misery on the island against the actual terms of Jack's indentured servitude in Chesapeake Bay. This chapter is the centrepiece of the work and offers an intriguing reading of Crusoe's spiritual progress "as a narrative of transportation, indentured servitude, and the establishment of a plantation" (10). Todd explores the indentured servant as emblematic of the progress if not the plateaus of Crusoe's life on the island. Todd reads Crusoe's arc in terms of the servant's bondage of "four to five years and freedom dues of specified amounts of food, clothing, tools, and weapons" (8). This stipulation of "freedom dues" serves as Todd's anchor into the spiritual progress and provides a reading of the shipwreck as marking Crusoe's release from servitude to ownership of the plantation. Crusoe represents the figurative servant whose servitude imposes a discipline over his passions that have led him to the island in the first place. Though at first the reading of the shipwreck as freedom dues seems dubious, Todd's argument gains a critical momentum and plays this symbol-specific reading against historical context and significance of indentured servitude in early America. Crusoe's mastery of the object world and heroic individualism, a foundation for Benjamin Franklin's model for the aspiring class of tradesmen and entrepreneurs in colonial America, becomes subsumed in Todd's emphasis on Crusoe's deference and subservience to God. In resurrecting the Crusoe of J. Paul Hunter's The Reluctant Pilgrim (1966), Todd recalibrates the meaning and value of mercy, deliverance, and freedom within this symbolic indenture. My strongest criticism of Defoe's America is its unwillingness to argue against Hunter's reading of Crusoe as an Everyman when in fact Crusoe in this reading is a specific class and circumstance of English immigrant. The indentured servant structures the spiritual narrative and places Crusoe in the context of the literal, albeit fictional, New World of Defoe's imagination. But where Crusoe represents the hard work and toil of indentured servitude and the surrendering of self to the mercy of God, Jack and Moll have a relatively easy time of it in their ascent from their low beginnings as servants to successful landholders. Todd argues that Defoe's view of servitude is anachronistic to both the reality of indentured servitude as a short-term form of slavery and the Atlantic economy that becomes increasingly controlled by Creole gentry enriched by vast slave plantations. Todd states that the Chesapeake Bay, once "touted as the best poor man's country in the...

Motor vehicle fatal crash profiles of 13-15-year-olds

ObjectiveThe goal was to provide a description of fatal crashes involving 13-15-year-old drivers and passengers. MethodsInformation was obtained from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for 2005-2009. ResultsThe 1,994 passenger deaths during the 2005-2009 period far exceeded the number of driver deaths (299) or the number of drivers in fatal crashes (744). Passenger deaths occurring with teenage drivers, particularly 16-17-year-olds, increased with passenger age. Most 13-15-year-old drivers in crashes were driving either with no license or permit (63%), or with a permit but without required adult presence (10 percent). Fatal crashes involving illegal driving were most likely to involve high-risk actions such as speeding and nonuse of belts. Supervised learners were few in number (about 12 per year) and had the lowest rates of high-risk actions. ConclusionsThe main issues for 13-15-year-olds' motor vehicle deaths are passenger deaths and driving without a license or adult supervision. Impact on IndustryParents, pediatricians, and others need to recognize the increase in motor vehicle occupant deaths that occurs in the early teen years.

Comparison of injuries sustained by drivers and pillion passengers in fatal head-on motorcycle collision accidents

This study aimed to compare injuries sustained by motorcycle drivers with those sustained by pillion passengers in fatal head-on motorcycle collision accidents. We examined 84 cases of fatal head-on motorcycle collision accidents, causing 79 deaths of drivers and 19 deaths of pillion passengers, using medical and medico-legal examination records. The distribution of superficial injuries, characteristic injuries, injury severity as well as fatal causes was evaluated and compared using χ(2) tests. The results revealed a significant difference in the distribution of superficial injuries between drivers and passengers. The proportions of injuries in the hand and perineum regions were significantly higher in drivers than passengers. Some characteristic superficial injuries on the palms, chest, abdomen as well as the perineum areas were observed in drivers, while none of these characteristic injuries were observed in pillion passengers. Drivers were found to have suffered more severe chest and abdomen injuries than passengers. In addition, there was a higher incidence of fatalities involving run-over injuries for drivers compared with pillion passengers. The proportion of fatal injuries related to tumbling was higher for passengers than for drivers. Overall, our results revealed a difference in injury severity, superficial injury distribution and characteristic injuries between drivers and passengers. Few characteristic injuries were found in pillion passengers. These findings could help to guide medico-legal examinations, particularly in identifying drivers among victims involved in traffic accidents.

Cross-National Differences in Aviation Safety Records

Data about the mortality risk of scheduled passenger air travel over 2000–2007 around the world is examined in this paper. Worldwide, the average passenger death risk per scheduled flight over 2000–2007 was about one in 3.0 million. However, much as the center of mass of a doughnut is the center of the hole—where there is no mass—the worldwide average represents the actual risk level in few if any countries. The data support a three-population risk model across nations, in which the differences in death risk are not statistically significant within groups but are highly significant across groups. The safest nations are the traditional first-world countries (e.g., Canada, Japan), with a death risk per flight of about 1 in 14 million. Next safest are those developing-world nations that have either have recently attained first-world status (e.g., Singapore, South Korea) or are classified by experts as newly industrialized (e.g., Brazil, China) Their aggregrate death risk per flight was about 1 in 2 million. The least safe nations statistically are remaining developing-world countries, with a death risk per flight of about 1 in 800,000. In terms of relative risk, divergences within the developing world are modest compared to the overall difference between the first and developing worlds. The observed risk pattern might reflect a confluence of economic and cultural factors.

Analysis of neck fractures from frontal collisions at low speeds

Neck fracture is a major cause of death in traffic accidents. This pattern of injury normally occurs in a frontal collision or overturn of a vehicle. This study investigates the case of a neck fracture from a low-speed collision. In the examined case, the passenger in the front seat of the car fractured his neck and died. He did not have his seatbelt on when the vehicle slipped on a frozen road surface on a downward slope of a hill and impacted into the shoulder of the road at low speed. In this type of collision, an occupant’s body will be impacted by the windshield or other interior trim of the car. However, in this case, rather unusually, neither body tissue nor fiber remained although the collision involved a broken windshield. Thus, the reason for the passenger death was unidentified. This study applied the computer simulation package Madymo for analyzing the accident. The result of the simulation was that the passenger, who did not wear a seatbelt, moved forward due to inertia. The upper part of the passenger then rotated and lifted when the knee contacted with the dashboard. By evaluating the structural deformation of the vehicle at the front, we deduced that the collision velocity was 30 km/h. Through a computational experiment that was undertaken using Madymo 7.0, NIC was estimated to be 240 m2/s2. This result far exceeded the threshold for neck injuries. In particular, in comparison with whiplash injuries, when the passenger’s head directly impacts the roof following a rear-end collision, the bending moment through hyperextension of the neck is greatly increased. In this study, we concluded that the manner of death was the hyperextension of the neck, as the passenger’s head contacted the roof from underneath.

Commentary: Women and Alcohol: Increasingly Willing to Drive While Impaired?

Commentary: Women and Alcohol: Increasingly Willing to Drive While Impaired?

Life and Death of an Influential Passenger: Wolbachia and the Evolution of CI-Modifiers by Their Hosts

Background Wolbachia are intracellular bacteria widely distributed among arthropods and nematodes. In many insect species these bacteria induce a cytoplasmic incompatibility (CI) between sperm of infected males and eggs of uninfected females. From an evolutionary point of view, CI is puzzling: In order to induce this modification-rescue system, Wolbachia affect sperm of infected males even though Wolbachia are only transmitted maternally. Phylogenetic studies of Wolbachia and hosts show that the bacteria rarely cospeciate with their hosts, indicating that infections are lost in host species. However, the mechanisms leading to Wolbachia loss are not well understood.ResultsUsing a population genetic model, we investigate the spread of host mutants that enhance or repress Wolbachia action by affecting either bacterial transmission or the level of CI. We show that host mutants that decrease CI-levels in males (e.g. by reducing Wolbachia-density during spermatogenesis) spread, even at cost to mutant males. Increase of these mutants can lead to loss of Wolbachia infections, either as a direct consequence of their increase or in a step-wise manner, and we derive analytically a threshold penetrance above which a mutation's spread leads to extinction of Wolbachia. Selection on host modifiers is sexually antagonistic in that, conversely, host mutants that enhance Wolbachia in females are favoured whereas suppressors are not.ConclusionsOur results indicate that Wolbachia is likely to be lost from host populations on long evolutionary time scales due to reduction of CI levels in males. This can occur either by evolution of single host modifiers with large effects or through accumulation of several modifier alleles with small effects on Wolbachia action, even at cost to mutant males and even if infected hosts do not incur fecundity costs. This possibility is consistent with recent findings and may help to explain the apparent short evolutionary persistence times of Wolbachia in many host systems.

Thirty Years Later: Still Playing Catch-Up with the Terrorists

A vastly different international landscape greats the thirtieth volume of the Syracuse Journal of International Law and Commerce than the one that greeted the first volume in 1972. But remarkably, in light of recent developments, there is a fascinating - but chilling - link with that first volume. The Syracuse University College of Law and its international law journal have come to be inextricably linked with the modern phenomena of terrorism based upon aircraft hijackings, bombings, and attacks, in a continuum that stretches from the time of first volume's debut thirty years ago until today.Briefly, the first volume contained a symposium on the then-current threat of aircraft hijackings. During that phase, hijackers typically diverted passenger aircraft from their intended routes to make political points, and neither the deaths of passengers nor mass destruction were the terrorists' goals. But that changed over the skies of Lockerbie in 1988. Syracuse then lost thirty-five students in the Pam Am Flight 103 bombing. Next came September 11, 2001, in which Syracuse lost thirty alumni among the many killed.This essay first looks at the often prescient comments made in that first Journal issue thirty years ago. It then briefly examines what I describe as the four phases of aircraft-based terrorism: conventional hijackings with little or no death to innocents; the Lockerbie bombing with destruction of many innocent persons; 9/11 and the use of passenger aircraft as weapons of mass destruction; and, finally, the potential for attacks on civilian aircraft with hand-held ground to air missiles. Finally, it concludes with a less-than-optimistic look at the future.

Compulsory child restraint seat law and motor vehicle child occupant deaths and injuries in Japan 1994–2005

The purpose of child restraint seats (CRS) is to reduce the number of individuals killed or injured in motor vehicle (MV) crashes. Japanese Road Traffic Law 17–3-4 (April 2000) specifies a requirement that CRS be used for all children aged 0–5 years. The objective of this evaluation was to determine the legislative impact on fatalities in Japan for the period 1994–2005. Data were obtained from the Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis. A time-series Poisson regression model was used to analyse the change (6 years pre/post) in incidence rate ratios of fatality and injury in MV crashes among children ages 0–5 years. Despite increases in CRS use, fatalities failed to decrease significantly after enactment of the law (incidence rate ratio: 0.80; 95% CI: 0.49–1.31). In 2005, 67% of children aged 0–5 years, who were killed as MV occupants were not seated in CRS. Between 2000 and 2005, the lack of CRS led to 43% of front seat passenger deaths, 54% of rear seat deaths, 143 children died in total and 500 + children were seriously injured. It was found that the compulsory CRS law enacted in April 2000 did not result in a statistically significant reduction in child MV occupant fatalities and injuries in Japan.

Do Older Drivers Pose a Risk to Other Road Users?

Objective: To investigate the extent to which older drivers pose a risk to other road users, relative to drivers of other ages, using Australian fatal crash data. Method: The principal data source was the Australian Transport Safety Bureau's National Fatalities Database, which has provided fatality numbers for the most recent available 10-year period (1988, 1990, 1992, 1994, and 1996–2001). For each driver age group (“target drivers”), fatality rates were calculated for the following categories of road users: target driver deaths, their passenger deaths, road users external to the target vehicle but killed in the crash involving the target driver, all road users killed other than target drivers, and all road users killed (including target drivers). Fatality rates were calculated on three bases: per population numbers in each age category, per licensed driver numbers in each age category, and per distance driven for each age category. The different road user fatality rates associated with drivers aged 80 years and older were compared to the rates associated with drivers from younger age categories. Results: On a per population basis, older drivers had a significantly lower “all road users” fatality rate than all age groups bar one (RR for other age groups: 1.2–3.1) and these differences strengthened once target drivers were excluded (RR: 1.4–5.1), all differences significant. On a per licence basis, older drivers had significantly higher “all road users” fatality rate when compared to the rates for drivers aged 30–39 years through to 70–79 years (RR for these age groups: 0.5–0.7) but once the target drivers were excluded, older drivers' “all other road users & fatality rates for were significantly lower than for drivers aged 17–24 years to 30–39 (RR: 1.3–2.6) years. On a per-distance basis, older drivers had significantly higher all road users fatality rate when compared to the rates for all drivers aged 25–29 years through to 70–79 years (RR for these age groups: 0.1–0.4). Once the target drivers were excluded, older drivers' all other road users fatality rates remained significantly higher than for these other age groups (RR: 0.3–0.7) years. Conclusions: Based on two of the three bases (per population and per licence), it has been strongly asserted that overall, the older the driver, the less the threat to other road users—and particularly, the less the threat to road users external to the driver's vehicle. Drivers aged 80 years and older appeared to be the greatest threat to other road users only when per distance fatality rates were compared.

Risk Factors for Death Among Older Child and Teenaged Motor Vehicle Passengers

To identify and prioritize risk factors for passenger death. Retrospective cohort captured in 2 databases: US census of fatal crashes (Fatality Analysis Reporting System) and US-representative sample of police-reported crashes (National Automotive Sampling System Crash Data System). Crashes in 50 states and the District of Columbia from January 1, 2000, to December 31, 2005. A total of 45 560 passengers aged 8 to 17 years in crashes, representing 2 545 168 passengers (weighted). Main Exposures Age and sex of driver, vehicle and road type, restraint use, seating position, day of week, month, time of day, and speed limit. Outcome Measure Passenger fatality. Approximately 424 000 passengers (aged 8-17 years) annually were in tow-away crashes and experienced a fatality rate of 3.9 per 1000. Just more than three-quarters as many passengers (aged 8-17 years) were in crashes with 16- to 19-year-old drivers as with all adult drivers (those aged > or =25 years), with double the passenger fatality rate. For drivers aged 16 to 17 years, passenger fatalities doubled between passenger ages 11 to 12 years and increased to a peak at a passenger age of 16 years. Of crashes with child passenger fatality, 21.2% involved alcohol. In crashes with drivers younger than 18 years, the greatest risk factors for death for passengers aged 8 to 17 years were drivers younger than 16 years, restraint nonuse, and high-speed roads (> or =55 and 45-54 mph). While passenger risks because of restraint nonuse require continued attention, interventions must be developed to address risk because of travel on high-speed roads and riding with drivers younger than 16 years. For safety, child passengers and their parents should monitor these characteristics of the drive and the driver. Anticipatory guidance about passenger risks should begin by the age of 11 years.