Significant Trends in Human Factors Research on Motor Vehicle Accidents

The number of fatalities and injuries from all types of motor vehicle accidents have been increasing throughout the world. This paper analyzes these statistics in an effort to find the causes of this high accident rate and to suggest possible solutions. Among the findings are: the number of people injured is increasing more rapidly than fatalities; the greatest percentage of fatalities occurs in the teenage and young adult age bracket with males predominating; alcohol is a dominating cause of many accidents; the personal and emotional maladjustment of the driver is a contributing factor; those related to old age, disease, and illness of drivers need to be more carefully studied and criteria for disqualification established. Possible solutions include: improved driver training; improved highway design, especially with regard to lighting; improved vehicular design. The author feels the latter is most important as it seems unlikely that driving habits can be radically improved.