Determinants of motor vehicle deaths in the United States: a cross-sectional analysis

Abstract

This paper uses 1987 state-level data and least-squares regression to estimate a model of motor vehicle deaths in the United States. The model includes several factors accounted for in previous cross-sectional studies of these fatalities. The estimates suggest that income, the ratio of urban to rural driving, expenditures on highway police and safety, motor vehicle inspection laws, and adult seat belt use laws with secondary enforcement provisions are inversely related to motor vehicle death rates. They also indicate that volume of driving, speed, speed variance, driving density, alcohol consumption, temperature, and a dummy variable for western states are directly related to the rates.