Seat Belt, DWI, and Other Traffic Violations Among Recent Immigrants in Florida and Tennessee

Phase I of this project identified two States, Florida and Tennessee, that maintain information on drivers’ traffic violations and residency status. Phase II analyzed State databases to examine seat belt non-use, driving while intoxicated (DWI), and other traffic safety violations among drivers of different immigrant status. The Florida Division of Motor Vehicles provided a stratified random sample of 286,746 drivers’ records in its database, for the years 2003 to 2009. The Tennessee Department of Safety provided records for 5,680,728 people for 10 years, 2000 to 2010. The analyses suggest that those who have come recently to the country are less likely to be cited for seat belt, speeding, and failure-to-obey violations than more established drivers; but as time goes by and immigrant drivers become more established, they begin to resemble established citizens in terms of the likelihood of being ticketed for these traffic violations. Factors such as age or gender seem to contribute to their likelihood of being cited for seat belt, speeding, or failure-to-obey violations, more than residency status. Of the four traffic citations examined, speeding was the most prevalent in both States, while DWI was the least-often violation listed in the driver records. In both Florida and Tennessee, 1% of all drivers were cited for a speeding violation within 3 months of licensure, independent of residency status. Male drivers and drivers under 21 were more likely to be cited for traffic violations than older drivers (21 and older). The race and ethnic distribution of violation rates varied across the different violations. Compared to other groups, Asians/Pacific Islanders (PIs) were significantly less involved than other racial and ethnic groups in seat belt or DWI violations, but more involved in speeding and failure-to-obey traffic signs and signals violations. White and American Indian drivers were significantly less involved in failure-to-obey citations than drivers of any other group. Recent Hispanic immigrants to Florida were more likely to be arrested for DWI than the more established immigrants. For Asian/PI drivers in Florida, residency status was not a factor in DWI arrests and their DWI rates were substantially lower than the other racial and ethnic groups. The findings from this study are specific to two States and suggest that the role of residency status on traffic violations varied depending on the violation, the racial and ethnic group, and the State.

• Record URL:
  http://www.nhtsa.gov/staticfiles/nti/pdf/811761.pdf
• 
• Record URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/2033
• Corporate Authors:

  Bedford Research

  11 Davis Road
  Bedford, MA  United States  01730-1597

  Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation

  11720 Beltsville Drive, Suite 900
  Calverton, MD  United States  20705-3102

  National Highway Traffic Safety Administration

  Office of Behavioral Safety Research, 1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Romano, Eduardo
  • Tippetts, A S
  • Fell, James C
  • Wiliszowski, Connie
  • Auld-Owens, Amy
• Publication Date: 2013-5

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Edition: Final Report
• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 88p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Drivers; Drunk driving; Gender; Immigrants; Persons by race and ethnicity; Seat belt use; Speeding; Traffic citations; Traffic violations
• Geographic Terms: Florida; Tennessee
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I81: Accident Statistics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01499690
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: DOT HS 811 761
• Contract Numbers: DTNH22-05-25043, Task No. 10
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Nov 21 2013 9:22AM