Highway Safety

In recent years, automobiles have been associated with nearly 29,000 traffic fatalities annually in the United States, including the deaths of both automobile occupants and others involved in collisions with automobiles. The Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation asked GAO to study the independent effects of important crash-related factors on the likelihood of injury once an automobile crash has occurred. This report addresses these questions: What are the most important predictors of injury in a crash? How is the risk of injury in a crash affected by the severity and type of the crash, automobile size, safety belts and air bags, and the occupant's age and gender? What are promising areas for reducing further the crash injury risk of automobile occupants?