Motor Vehicle Crashes and Injury among High School and College Aged Drivers. Miami-Dade County, FL 2005

Purpose To describe motor vehicle crashes and injury occurring among high school and college aged drivers in order to guide prevention efforts targeted toward reducing motor vehicle related injuries among the young population. Methods The 2005 crash data used in this study was obtained from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Data was analyzed using SAS by age, injury severity, alcohol/drug involvement, restraint use, day of week, and time of day. Results There were 16,311 drivers between the ages of 15–24 involved in motor vehicle crashes. Of these, over a 1/3 were injured, 14% were unrestrained, and 1.5% were alcohol and/or drug related. Alcohol and/or drug use among college aged drivers 20–24 years of age was higher than that in other age groups. The majority of crashes (38%) occurred between the hours of 12 PM and 5 PM. Friday and Saturday accounted for 30% of all crashes in this age group. High school and college aged drivers were less likely to use safety restraints compared to all other age groups. Those without restraints were 5 times more likely to suffer severe injuries. Drivers who were using alcohol and/or drugs were twice as likely to be unrestrained and three times more likely to be severely injured. Among those using alcohol and/or drugs 27% were not restrained. Over half of drivers using alcohol and/or drugs crashed between the hours of 12 AM and 5 AM. Conclusion Interventions targeting 15–24 year olds should focus on increasing safety belt use in this age group. Furthermore, college based interventions should also aim to reduce impaired driving due to alcohol and/or drugs. Since the majority of crashes occurred between the hours of 12 PM and 5 PM, intervention campaigns should target students as they leave the school premises for lunch or after class. In addition, localities should make use of readily available data such as the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles crash database in order to enhance injury surveillance activities and program planning and evaluation.