Road Deaths and the Next U.S. Presidential Election
The US presidential electoral process is remarkable for widespread spending, attention, conflict, and rhetoric. Whether the process has an immediate effect on public health has never been tested. Moreover, such a possibility rarely receives consideration when evaluating voter turnout statistics ranging around 50-60% of eligible Americans. The author studied all US presidential elections for the last 32 years, beginning with Carter in 1976 and ending with Obama in 2008. For each election, he analyzed the national registry of fatal crashes in the US, along with the Tuesday immediately before and after to calculate expected numbers of individuals in fatal crashes for the nation at the time. His main finding was that the average election leads to a 19% increase in the risk of a fatal crash during the hours of polling. This equaled about 24 people per election; was remarkably consistent across different ages and locations; and greatly exceeded the risk on New Year’s Eve, Super Bowl Sunday, or the chance of casting a pivotal vote. He concludes that efforts to mobilize the population, along with America's reliance on motor vehicles, results in increased fatal crashes during US presidential elections. He suggests more safety advocacy by electioneers who encourage people to vote. Perhaps the US president, when elected in the aftermath of fatal crashes, might also give more thought to the 100 lives lost each day from crashes in the United States.
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Corporate Authors:
University of Iowa, Iowa City
Public Policy Center
227 South Quadrangle
Iowa City, IA United States 52242-1192 -
Authors:
- Redelmeier, Donald
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Conference:
- Driving Assessment 2011: 6th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design
- Location: Olympic Valley - Lake Tahoe CA
- Date: 2011-6-27 to 2011-6-30
- Publication Date: 2011
Language
- English
Media Info
- Media Type: CD-ROM
- Pagination: p1
- Monograph Title: Proceedings of the 6th International Driving Symposium on Human Factors in Driver Assessment, Training, and Vehicle Design, Resort at Squaw Creek, Olympic Valley - Lake Tahoe, California, USA, June 27-30, 2011
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Crash risk forecasting; Fatalities; Highway safety; Special events; Traffic crashes
- Identifier Terms: U.S. President
- Uncontrolled Terms: Elections
- Geographic Terms: United States
- Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01349823
- Record Type: Publication
- Files: TRIS
- Created Date: Aug 16 2011 1:56PM