THE CONNECTION BETWEEN RISKY DRIVING AND INVOLVEMENT IN FATAL ACCIDENTS

The connection between risky driving and involvement in fatal accidents was investigated in two studies using two data sets. The first study compared the recorded offenses of 615 drivers involved in fatal accidents with a sample of drivers randomly selected from driver records. The second study compared the recorded offenses of 143 drivers stopped by the police for risky driving with the prior records of control drivers stopped at the same locations. The drivers involved in fatal accidents and the drivers stopped for risky driving had violated traffic regulations more often than other drivers. Those responsible for causing fatal accidents as well as involved but nonculpable drivers had previously been convicted of traffic offenses more often than other drivers. Among the fatal-accident drivers, those involved in running-off-the-road accidents had accumulated the largest number of traffic offenses. There appears to be a particular link between the age and the prior offense rate of the two risk groups. For under-35-year-olds, the offense rate (offenses/million kilometers) of those stopped for risky driving and those involved in fatal accidents were about the same. For over-35-year-olds, the drivers stopped for risky driving had accumulated many times more speeding offenses than those involved in fatal accidents. Unlike the other groups the offense rate of those stopped for risky driving does not decrease with age.