The fast and the fatal: street racing fatal crashes in the United States

The objective of this study was to determine the annual incidence of fatal motor vehicle crashes involving street racing and to describe the characteristics of these crashes compared to other fatal crashes in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Rep...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Injury prevention 2004-02, Vol.10 (1), p.53-55
Main Authors: Knight, S, Cook, L J, Olson, L M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Accident Proneness
Accidents, Traffic - mortality
Adolescent
Adult
Age Factors
Automobile Driving - psychology
Automobile Driving - statistics & numerical data
Brief Report
confidence interval
FARS
Fatalities
fatality analysis reporting system
Female
Humans
Incidence
Male
motor vehicle crashes
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
NHTSA
odds ratio
Prevention programs
Risk Factors
Risk-Taking
Sex Factors
speeding
street racing
teen drivers
Traffic accidents & safety
Trucking industry
United States - epidemiology
Urban Health
Vehicles
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:The objective of this study was to determine the annual incidence of fatal motor vehicle crashes involving street racing and to describe the characteristics of these crashes compared to other fatal crashes in the United States. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration Fatality Analysis Reporting System data for 1998–2001 were used for the analyses. There were 149 568 fatal crashes and 315 (0.21%) involved street racing and 399 fatalities occurred in these crashes. In contrast to other fatal crashes, street racing fatal crashes were more likely to occur on urban roadways and were nearly six times more likely to occur at travel speeds ≥65 mph. Compared with other drivers involved in fatal crashes, street racers were more likely to be teenagers, male, and have previous crashes and driving violations. Street racing involves risky driving behaviors and warrants further attention.
ISSN:1353-8047
1475-5785
DOI:10.1136/ip.2003.003566