IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/aph/ajpbhl/10.2105-ajph.2004.048926_7.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effects of snowfalls on motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities

Author

Listed:
  • Eisenberg, D.
  • Warner, K.E.

Abstract

Objectives. We estimated the effects of snowfalls on US traffic crash rates between 1975 and 2000. Methods. We linked all recorded fatal crashes (1.4 million) for the 48 contiguous states from 1975 through 2000 to daily state weather data. For a subsample including 17 states during the 1990s, we also linked all recorded property-damage-only crashes (22.9 million) and nonfatal-injury crashes (13.5 million) to daily weather data. Employing negative binomial regressions, we investigated the effects of snowfall on crash counts. Fixed effects and other controls were included to address potential confounders. Results. Snow days had fewer fatal crashes than dry days (incidence rate ratio [IRR] = 0.93; 95% confidence interval [Cl] = 0.90, 0.97), but more nonfatal-injury crashes (IRR = 1.23; 95% Cl = 1.18, 1.29) and property-damage-only crashes (IRR = 1.45; 95% Cl = 1.38, 1.52). The first snowy day of the year was substantially more dangerous than other snow days in terms of fatalities (IRR = 1.14; 95% Cl = 1.08, 1.21), particularly for elderly drivers (IRR= 1.34; 95% Cl = 1.23, 1.50). Conclusions. The toll of snow-related crashes is substantial. Our results may help estimate the potential benefits of safety innovations currently proposed by meteorology and traffic safety experts.

Suggested Citation

  • Eisenberg, D. & Warner, K.E., 2005. "Effects of snowfalls on motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 95(1), pages 120-124.
    • Handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.048926_7
    DOI: 10.2105/AJPH.2004.048926
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.2105/AJPH.2004.048926
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.2105/AJPH.2004.048926?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wolff, Hendrik, 2014. "Value of time: Speeding behavior and gasoline prices," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 67(1), pages 71-88.
    2. Olivier Deschênes & Enrico Moretti, 2009. "Extreme Weather Events, Mortality, and Migration," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 91(4), pages 659-681, November.
    3. Islam, Mazharul & Alharthi, Majed & Alam, Md. Mahmudul, 2018. "The Impacts of Climate Change on Road Traffic Accidents in Saudi Arabia," OSF Preprints 2p5aj, Center for Open Science.
    4. Noland, Robert B., 2013. "From theory to practice in road safety policy: Understanding risk versus mobility," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 71-84.
    5. Barreca, Alan I., 2012. "Climate change, humidity, and mortality in the United States," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 63(1), pages 19-34.
    6. Lesley Strawderman & Daniel W. Carruth & Kathleen Sherman-Morris & Philip Menard & Merrill Warkentin & Karen S. McNeal, 2018. "Individual transportation decisions under conditions of risk and uncertainty," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 92(2), pages 927-942, June.
    7. Corsaro, Nicholas & Gerard, Daniel W. & Engel, Robin S. & Eck, John E., 2012. "Not by accident: An analytical approach to traffic crash harm reduction," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 40(6), pages 502-514.
    8. Hocheol Jeon, 2019. "The Impact of Climate Change on Passenger Vehicle Fuel Consumption: Evidence from U.S. Panel Data," Energies, MDPI, vol. 12(23), pages 1-15, November.
    9. Black, Alan W. & Mote, Thomas L., 2015. "Effects of winter precipitation on automobile collisions, injuries, and fatalities in the United States," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 165-175.
    10. Otrachshenko, Vladimir & Popova, Olga & Solomin, Pavel, 2017. "Health Consequences of the Russian Weather," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 132(C), pages 290-306.
    11. Daniel Burow & Christopher Atkinson, 2019. "An examination of traffic volume during snow events in northeast Ohio," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 99(2), pages 1179-1189, November.
    12. Milhan Moomen & Amirarsalan Mehrara Molan & Khaled Ksaibati, 2023. "A Random Parameters Multinomial Logit Model Analysis of Median Barrier Crash Injury Severity on Wyoming Interstates," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(14), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Leard, Benjamin & Roth, Kevin, 2015. "Weather, Traffic Accidents, and Climate Change," RFF Working Paper Series dp-15-19, Resources for the Future.
    14. Khaleghei Ghosheh Balagh, Akram & Naderkhani, Farnoosh & Makis, Viliam, 2014. "Highway Accident Modeling and Forecasting in Winter," Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 384-396.
    15. Andrey, Jean, 2010. "Long-term trends in weather-related crash risks," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 18(2), pages 247-258.
    16. Wozny, Florian, 2020. "Hospital Resources: Persistent Reallocation under Price Changes," IZA Discussion Papers 13256, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    17. Mahdi Pour-Rouholamin & Mohammad Jalayer & Huaguo Zhou, 2017. "Modelling single-vehicle, single-rider motorcycle crash injury severity: an ordinal logistic regression approach," International Journal of Urban Sciences, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 21(3), pages 344-363, September.
    18. Hyuk-Jae Roh, 2020. "Modelling chronic winter hazards as a function of precipitation and temperature," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 104(2), pages 1723-1745, November.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:aph:ajpbhl:10.2105/ajph.2004.048926_7. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Christopher F Baum (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.apha.org .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.