Are teenage males at elevated risk for all motor vehicle crashes? An analysis of seven crash configurations by age and sex

Purpose

Teenage male drivers crash more often and at higher rates than any other group of drivers [1]. The question of whether teenage males' elevated risk is uniformly distributed across all crashes or is concentrated in certain crash configurations is poorly understood. The purpose of this research was to define crash types based on combinations of crash characteristics and estimate differences in the likelihood of fatal and non-fatal crash configurations across four age by sex groups: teenage males, teenage females, adult males and adult females.

Methods

The Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) [2] and the General Estimates System (GES) [3] data were used to create seven crash configurations that accounted for 85.9% of all crashes.

Results

Teenage males' higher crash risk relative to other drivers was concentrated to single vehicle head-on, and front-to-rear crashes. Teenage males were less likely than teenage females and adults to be rear-ended or hit in the right side. For rear-end crashes, there was a pronounced age effect, where adults were approximately two to three times more likely to be rear-ended relative to teenage drivers. For right-side crashes (where the study vehicle is struck in the right side by another vehicle), there was a distinct sex effect, with teenage and adult females having significantly higher odds of this crash configuration than teenage and adult males.

Conclusions

Teenage males' greater overall risk of MVC was not constant across all crash configurations. These results suggest fundamental differences in driving outcomes by age and sex.