Under task 2 of contract dot-hs-6-01338 asgi was directed by nhtsa to perform a statistical analysis using data files supplied by the university of alabama at huntsville (uah) to determine the effect of autocheck program participation on the passenger vehicle accident rate in madison county, alabama. Out of 51025 registered passenger vehicles (model years 1968-1973) in the county 9696 participated in the autocheck program during the 56 week period april 1, 1975 through april 30, 1976. During this same period 5956 passenger vehicles (model years 1968-1973) registered in madison county were involved in an accident within the county. Statistics derived from the data processing were used to obtain estimates of the overall county accident rates for autocheck and non-autocheck vehicles. This showed that autocheck vehicles had a slightly higher estimated accident rate (12.0%) than the non-autocheck vehicles (11.6%) which did not support the hypothesis that the autocheck participant accident was lower than for non-participants. Since the majority of the within county autocheck participants (87%) resided in the city of huntsville an additional more detailed accident rate contrast was performed for huntsville vehicles. This analysis took into account the time at which vehicles entered the autocheck program and the variation of the overall county accident rate with time. The 56 week period was segmented into quarters of 14 weeks each. During the first and last quarters the autocheck accident rate was lower, during the second and third quarters the autocheck accident rate was higher. These overall results do not present any strong indication that autocheck participation resulted in a lower accident rate. (Author/publisher)
Abstract