A STUDY OF SINGLE AND MULTIPLE VEHICLE ACCIDENTS

Two types of accidents were studied; single and multiple vehicle fatalities while accidents involving a motorcycle, pedestrian or bicycles were excluded. All fatalities which were included occurred within the 1973 calendar year. This study consisted of 561 single vehicle fatalities and 566 multiple vehicle accidents with 1205 drivers and vehicles involved for a grand total of 1766 drivers. In general, it was found that the characteristics of single vehicle fatal accidents differed from the characteristics of multiple vehicle fatals. For example, drivers in single vehicle fatals were younger and usually driving faster. The purpose of this study was simply to compare single and multiple vehicle fatalities with each other as well as with other injury and property damage accident data. Several aspects of these two types of fatal accidents were given particular attention including sex, age, time of day, day of week, and violations. The results indicate that Saturday and Sunday have the highest incidence of single vehicle fatalities while Friday has the highest incidence of multiple vehicle fatalities. The graph of Time of Day reveals that multiple vehicle fatalities exceed single vehicle fatalities in both the morning and evening hours while single vehicle fatalities far exceed multiple vehicle fatals in the late evening to predawn hours. Other findings show a disproportionate number of male drivers and young drivers especially among single vehicle fatals. /Author/

• Corporate Authors:

  Duke University

  National Driving Center
  Durham, NC  United States  27706
• Publication Date: 1974-7

Media Info

• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 12 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Crash investigation; Days; Drivers; Fatalities; Females; Males; Single vehicle crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver age
• Old TRIS Terms: Female drivers; Male drivers
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00127183
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Safety Council Safety Research Info Serv
• Report/Paper Numbers: TR 001
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Jan 14 1976 12:00AM