Skip to main content

Advertisement

SpringerLink
Log in

Risk factors contributing to motor vehicle collisions in an environment of uncertainty

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Stochastic Environmental Research and Risk Assessment Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The concepts of medical geography provide a framework for investigating the importance of people–place interactions in risk analysis and assessing the roles of individual, behavioral, and environmental risk factors. Analyses of data on motor vehicle collisions in Connecticut in 1995 and 1996 are used to illustrate geographical variations in the characteristics of collisions. A method is presented for identifying high frequency collision sites for particular collision types. Proportions and odds ratios calculated as local statistics are used to highlight sites where the individual, behavioral, or environmental characteristics of collisions differ significantly from those in the state as a whole. These differences have implications for developing better statistical models for knowledge synthesis and policy development.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Ameratunga S, Hijar M, Norton R (2006) Road-traffic injuries: confronting disparities to address a global-health problem. Lancet 367:1533–1540

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Berenson RA (2004) Lumpers and splitters: different approaches to understanding variations research. Health Aff 98:VAR98–VAR103

    Google Scholar 

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006a) BRFSS turning information into health. http://www.cdc.gov/brfss/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2006b) Environmental public health indicators project. http://www.cdc.gov/hceh/indicators/ Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Atlanta

  • Chadwick E (1965) Report on the sanitary condition of the labouring population of Great Britain. In: Flynn MW (ed) Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh

  • Chen IG, Durbin DR, Elliott MR, Senserrick T, Winston FK (2006) Child passenger injury risk in motor vehicle crashes: a comparison of nighttime and daytime driving by teenage and adult drivers. J Safety Res 37:299–306

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cromley E (2003) Case study of the use of GIS to inventory and understand the pattern of traffic accidents in Connecticut. In: Clarke KC (ed) Getting started with geographic information systems, 4th edn. Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River, pp 237–241

  • Davis JW, Bennink LD, Pepper DR, Parks SN, Lemaster DM, Townsend RN (2006) Aggressive traffic enforcement: a simple and effective injury prevention program. J Trauma Inj Infect Crit Care 60:972–976

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diez-Roux AV (2000) Multilevel analysis in public health research. Annu Rev Public Health 21:171–192

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Duncan C, Jones K (2000) Using multilevel models to model heterogeneity: potential and pitfalls. Geogr Anal 35:279–305

    Google Scholar 

  • Duncan JD (1994) Place. In: Johnston RJ, Gregory D, Smith DM (eds) The dictionary of human geography, 3rd edn. Blackwell, Oxford, p 442

  • Eisenberg D, Warner KE (2005) Effects of snowfalls on motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities. Am J Public Health 95:120–124

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fotheringham AS et al (2002) Geographically weighted regression: the analysis of spatially varying relationships. Wiley, Chichester, pp 19, 45, 160–162, 177–179

  • Gatrell AC (2002) Geographies of health: an introduction. Blackwell, Oxford, p 1

  • Gilbert EW (1958) Pioneer maps of health and disease in England. Geogr J 124(Part 2):172–183

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Goddard N (2002) A review of medical geography in historical perspective. Soc Hist Med 15:173–174

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Guerts K, Thomas I, Wets G (2005) Understanding spatial concentrations of road accidents using frequent item sets. Accid Anal Prev 37:787–799

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hallenbeck WH (1993) Quantitative risk assessment for environmental and occupational health, 2nd edn. Lewis Publishers, Boca Raton

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunter JM (1974) The challenge of medical geography. In: Hunter JM (ed) The geography of health and disease. Department of Geography Studies in Geography No. 6. University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, pp 1–31

  • Jenkins R et al (2005) Matters of life and death: the control of uncertainty and the uncertainty of control. In: Steffen V, Jenkins R, Jessen H (eds) Managing uncertainty: ethnographic studies of illness, risk and the struggle for control. Museum Tusculanem Press, Copenhagen, pp 9–29

  • Johnson SW, Walker J (1996) The Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System (CODES) DOT HS 808 338 National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington DC

  • Jones K, Duncan C (1996) People and places: the multilevel model as a general framework for the quantitative analysis of geographical data. In: Longley P, Batty M (eds) Spatial analysis: modelling in a GIS environment. Geoinformation International, Cambridge, pp 79–104

  • Kearns RA (1993) Place and health: toward a reformed medical geography. Prof Geogr 45:139–147

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kim KE, Yamashita EY (2001) Asleep at the wheel: spatial and temporal patterns of fatigue-related crashes in Honolulu. Transp Res Rec 1779:46–53

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krieger N et al (2002) Zip code caveat: bias due to spatiotemporal mismatches between zip codes and U.S. Census-defined geographic areas—the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project. Am J Public Health 92:1100–1102

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • LaScala EA, Gruenewald PJ, Johnson FW (2004) An ecological study of the locations of schools and child pedestrian injury collisions. Accid Anal Prev 36:569–576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Massie DL, Green PE, Campbell KL (1997) Crash involvement rates by driver gender and the role of average annual mileage. Accid Anal Prev 29:675–685

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • National Center for Statistics and Analysis (2006) Traffic safety facts 2004 DOT HS 809 919. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington DC, pp 142–143

  • Price B, Ware A (2005) Mesothelioma: risk apportionment among asbestos exposure sources. Risk Anal 25:937–943

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Richter ED, Berman T, Friedman L, Ben-David G (2006) Speed, road injury, and public health. Annu Rev Public Health 27:125–152

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Robinson AH (1982) Early thematic mapping in the history of cartography. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothman KJ (2002) Epidemiology: an introduction. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp 76–77, 86

    Google Scholar 

  • Rupke, NA (ed) (2000) Medical geography in historical perspective. In: Medical History Supplement No. 20. Wellcome, London

  • Rushton G, Lolonis P (1996) Exploratory spatial anlaysis of birth defect rates in an urban population. Stat Med 15:717–726

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Shannon GW (1981) Disease mapping and early theories of yellow fever. Prof Geogr 33:221–227

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spjtvøll E (1987) Probability: interpretation and estimation. In: Singleton WT, Hovden J (eds) Risk and decisions. Wiley, Chichester, pp 13–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Sterling TD (1978) Does smoking kill workers or working kill smokers? or the mutual relationships between smoking, occupation, and respiratory disease. Int J Health Serv 8:437–452

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Subramanian R (2006) Motor vehicle traffic crashes as a leading cause of death in the United States, 2003. Traffic safety facts research note DOT HS 810 568. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Washington DC

  • Woodward WA, Huang EH, McNeese MD, Perkins GH, Tucker SL, Strom EA, Middleton L, Hahn K, Hortobagyi GN, Buchholz TA (2006) African–American race is associated with a poorer overall survival rate for breast cancer patients treated with mastectomy and doxorubicin-based chemotherapy. Cancer 107:2662–2668

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Community Research, Two Hartford Square West, Suite 100, 146 Wyllys Street, Hartford, CT, 06106-5128, USA

    Ellen K. Cromley

Authors
  1. Ellen K. Cromley
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ellen K. Cromley.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Cromley, E.K. Risk factors contributing to motor vehicle collisions in an environment of uncertainty. Stoch Environ Res Risk Assess 21, 473–486 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-007-0130-5

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00477-007-0130-5

Keywords

Search

Navigation