Many traffic crashes result from poor driver behavior. Driving while distracted, driving while under the influence, and speeding are among the leading driver behaviors contributing to traffic crashes. In recent years, alcohol involvement was a factor in about 40 percent of fatal motor vehicle crashes and driver inattention in at least 25 percent of police-reported crashes. In 2004, speeding was a contributing factor in 30 percent of fatal crashes.

Effective in reducing alcohol-related crashes are policies addressing drinking and driving, such as legal blood alcohol content limits set at .08 percent, license suspension laws, minimum drinking age laws, monitoring retail compliance with regard to sales to minors, vehicle impounding, and ignition interlock systems. Besides interventions to prevent crashes by targeting driving behavior, other efforts seek to reduce the effects of traffic crashes through safety devices. One of the most common devices, the seat belt, has a substantial effect on survivability in a crash. The NHTSA reported in 2004 that seat belts saved 15,434 lives. Rates of seat belt use vary among states but climbed between 1975 and 2004 in every state, most dramatically in states with laws requiring seat belt use.

At the national level, the NHTSA has led a sustained effort over the past few decades to reduce traffic crashes and subsequent injuries and death, resulting in greatly increased use of occupant restraints, decreased alcohol-related injuries and fatalities, and a reduction in the death rate per million miles traveled.

Expertise in transportation engineering, enforcement, city planning, public health, policy, and other relevant professions is critical to meeting the nation's complex traffic safety challenges. Reducing the toll that traffic injury takes on society requires a committed and comprehensive approach that covers education, engineering, enforcement, and environmental modifications. A critical element of injury prevention is to reach out to vulnerable populations by tailoring messages and programs to fit specific groups and their cultural norms, backgrounds, and experiences.

A systematic approach to traffic safety that addresses human behavior, vehicle design, and roadway design as interacting approaches to preventing traffic crashes and injury is needed. Cross-training and interdisciplinary work is central. For example, law enforcement must understand how data related to injuries and fatalities can inform formation and enforcement of traffic safety laws. Engineers must understand where and how injuries occur so that they can design roadways that are safe for drivers, passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists. Planners must understand the traffic safety issues in land use decisions. Teachers and social service professionals need to know how alcohol and other drugs affect driving behavior.

One way of organizing the diverse approaches to traffic safety is in terms of the Haddon matrix, developed by William Haddon, the first director of the NHTSA. The matrix is a tool for describing opportunities for where and when to conduct traffic safety interventions. The Haddon matrix looks at injuries in terms of causal and contributing factors by examining the factors of the driver, the vehicle, and the highway, as well as time phases before a potential vehicle collision ("pre-crash"), during the vehicle collision ("crash"), and after the collision ("post-crash").

The value of the Haddon matrix is that each cell illustrates a different area in which to mount interventions to improve traffic safety. Intervention designs that apply to the pre-crash phase can reduce the number of collisions. Interventions that apply to the crash phase do not stop the crash, but they reduce the number or severity of injuries that occur as a result. Interventions that apply to the post-crash phase do not stop the initial crash or the injury from occurring, but they optimize the outcome for people with injuries.

Bibliography:

1) AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. 2001. "The Role of Driver Distraction in Traffic Crashes." Washington, DC: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. Retrieved December 4, 2007.

2) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 2002. "The Economic Impact of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 2000." Retrieved November 30, 2007.

3) National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. 2004. "Traffic Safety Facts." Retrieved November 30, 2007.

4) Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. 2006. "Pedestrian Crash Facts." Chapel Hill, NC: Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center. Retrieved November 30, 2007.

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