Human characteristics and driver habits considered to be associated with motor vehicle accidents are studied. The basic sample of schenectady, n y was established by visiting 1,567 households in that city during 1955. Of these, 810 were driver or interview households and the remaining 757 were no-interview households. This study was conducted by the new york state department of public works in cooperation with the bureau of public roads. The new york state department of health collaborated in the study in the planning and interpretation of data phases. For the collection of data, 526 male and 284 female drivers were interviewed using a schedule of 60 questions relating to personal, social, health and driving characteristics, including miles driven for a 5 1/2-year period from january 1953 through june 1955. Accident records for the respondents covering this 2 1/2-year period were searched from the files of the motor vehicle bureau and evaluated by a panel of judges to determine accident responsibility. Data for each characteristic collected in the interview were tabulated by three groups of exposure - low, medium, and high - and each related to the drivers' accident status - no-accident, accident responsible, and accident not responsible - for the range of answers obtained. The general hypothesis of the whole study is that drivers responsible for motor vehicle accidents have different personal, social, and driving characteristics than drivers who have not had accidents. Each characteristic of the respondent was put into the form of a specific null hypothesis and tested statistically. To determine those attributes that may be causally associated with driver behavior, a factor test was applied to those variables for both male and female drivers that (1) were statistically significant on a 95 percent level, (2) were selected on a statistical judgment basis, and (3) were selected because of current interest in the variable. To test the hypothesis that there is no difference between accident and no-accident drivers in the way they drive, 428 male and 122 female drivers were followed while driving in schenectady and their driver behavior was noted and rated on a scale to include speed, headway, lane markings, passing, traffic signals, stop signs, turning movements, yielding, and attentiveness. A scoring system was adopted to group the drivers according to their rated driver behavior into categories of unsafe, predominately unsafe, neutral, predominately safe, and safe drivers. Accident records of the observed drivers for a 2 1/2-year period, january 1953 through june 30, 1955, were searched and the data were tabulated by sex to show the relation between the five categories of drivers by the no-accident and accident drivers. The types of accidents were likewise grouped for examination. Composition of the sample, characteristics of drivers and cars driven with accident experience are also examined. /author/
Abstract