Motor Vehicle Injury Prevention Research Articles

Motor vehicle injury prevention for older adults.

Older adults account for more than 20% of the driving population in the United States today and their numbers are increasing. The risk for traffic injury increases significantly for people over 70 years of age. The reasons for the increase in risk are multiple, complex, and individual. Age alone does not define a person. Certain physical age-related changes, such as decline in visual acuity and a slowed neurological response will influence driving skill. Health practitioners need to recognize the older adult at risk, counsel the patient and family members and plan a program of effective interventions.

Prevention of motor vehicle injuries to elderly pedestrians

This article is based on a study conducted for the Centers for Disease Control by the University of North Carolina's (UNC) Highway Safety Research Center. The article begins by presenting background material on the older pedestrian and the causes and characteristics of older pedestrian injuries. A summary is then provided of the results of analyzing more than 26,000 pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes occurring in North Carolina during an 11-year period (1980-1990). Included in the total are 1,758 pedestrian victims age 65 or older. Similar findings are reported from an analysis of 70,825 fatal pedestrian-motor vehicle crashes occurring nationwide from 1980 to 1989 and identified from the Fatal Accident Reporting System (FARS) database. Education programs, pedestrian laws, and roadway improvements are interventions which may reduce motor vehicle injuries and deaths to elderly pedestrians.

From research to public policy: the prevention of motor vehicle injuries, childhood drownings, and firearm violence.

The purpose of this article is to review the development of the modern sciences of injury epidemiology and injury prevention and to illustrate the use of applied research in formulating effective public policy. MEDLINE searches were conducted from 1966 to 1990, and bibliographies of articles thus obtained were reviewed. Fugitive sources were identified by multiple means. Motor vehicle fatality rates on a per mile driven basis have been reduced by 50% over the past 25 years, largely through attention to the road environment and design of motor vehicles. Passive restraint systems such as air bags promise further reductions. Drowning has emerged as a leading cause of death among young children. Complete pool fencing is expected to prevent many of these events. Firearm violence, particularly among young people, is rapidly increasing. Firearms are hazardous consumer products but are not addressed as such by our current regulatory structure and intervention agenda. Epidemiologic and other applied research can make important contributions to the development of public policies designed to prevent injury. Such policies often address the design and performance of hazardous products and environments and consider individual behavior change as only a secondary objective.

Motor vehicle injury prevention

Motor vehicle injury prevention

Motor Vehicle Injuries During Adolescence

This article reviews the available options for prevention of motor vehicle injuries in adolescents. The potential strategies include high school driver's education programs, driving curfew laws, delaying the age of licensure, raising the minimum age for purchase of alcohol, legislation requiring mandatory seat belt and motorcycle helmet use, and airbags.