Harmful events in crashes.

Abstract

This study examined objects struck in motor vehicle crashes which cause injury or property damage--called harmful events on national accident data files. The percentage of loss due to fatalities was found to differ greatly by harmful event type. Comprehensive costs were used to combine data on fatalities, injuries, and property damage only (PDO) vehicles into a single economic measure of crash loss. Use of comprehensive costs can reduce distortions that may occur in analyses limited to fatal events. Large differences were identified in average injury costs by harmful event type, indicating the need to use specific harmful event injury costs in analyses whenever possible. Major differences found between first and most harmful events in ran-off-road crashes indicate a need for states to collect both data elements on their police accident report forms.