Fact Sheet

A speeding-related crash is defined as one where a driver is speeding, racing, driving too fast for the conditions, or driving in excess of the posted speed limit. In the United States, in 2019, over one in four (26.3 percent) fatalities involved speeding, a proportion that has remained steady since 2017 following a decline in the prior decade. Speeding reduces a driver’s ability to steer safely around curves or objects, reduces the amount of time a driver has to react to a dangerous situation, and extends safe stopping distances.

Historically, road safety efforts focused on...

There are typically many contributing factors in motor vehicle crashes. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) play a critical role post-crash to reduce fatalities and serious injuries. Recent studies show that an effective emergency trauma care system can improve survival from serious injuries by as much as 25 percent and county-level coordinated systems of trauma care can reduce crash fatalities rates as much as 50 percent.

The Haddon Matrix (see Figure 1) applies basic principles of public health to motor vehicle-related injuries. The matrix looks at the factors in the pre-crash, crash...

The older adult population in the United States aged 65 and older is expected to almost double between 2016 and 2060, from 49 million to 95 million. In 2019, there were 7,214 people aged 65 and older killed in traffic crashes in the United States; this accounted for 20.0 percent of all traffic fatalities. To provide context, the overall population aged 65 and older accounted for 16.5 percent of people in the United States and 20.2 percent of all licensed drivers in 2019. California has the largest number of licensed drivers aged 65 and older in the nation with 4,516,813, or 16.6 percent of...

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) defines a distraction-affected crash as one where a driver was determined to be distracted at the time of the crash.

According to the National Safety Council, mobile devices are among the top distractions for drivers nationwide. Studies have found that talking on cell phones, both handheld and hands-free, increases crash risk by about four times relative to baseline driving. Built-in communication technologies, along with hands-free cell phone technologies, draw attention away from driving. The ability to multitask is a...