Epidemiology and trends in law enforcement traffic collisions in California, 1998-2009

Purpose: Few studies of law enforcement collisions appear the published literature. Rivara et al. (2004) compared the characteristics of the collisions, vehicles, and drivers to those from other non-pursuit collisions. Hutson et al. (2007) also used FARS to examine fatalities related to police pursuits. They described collision type, race, age, gender, and alcohol use. We found no published studies that focused on the occurrence of officer-involved collisions not specific to police pursuits. In the study we summarize the characteristics and causal factors of law enforcement-related traffic collisions in California.

Methods: We obtained electronic police collision report data in California from the Statewide Integrated Traffic Collision Reporting System for years 1998-2009 and identified all fatal or nonfatal injury collisions that involved a law enforcement vehicle. Descriptive and regression methods were employed.

Results: During 1998-2009, 19,019 injury collisions occurred. Of there, 899 resulted in severe injury (5%) and 202 resulted in fatal injury (1%). A majority of police vehicles collided with another vehicle (75%), but a significant number struck a fixed object (8%), a pedestrian (3.5%), or a bicyclist (3.5%). The law enforcement officer was culpable in 34% of collisions.

Conclusions: Because law enforcement vehicles are currently equipped with numerous information systems that can distract officers from driving tasks, there is heightened concern about injury and liability risks in law enforcement community. This and other research into characteristics and causes of law enforcement traffic collisions will inform training and management policy initiatives to reduce the occurrence of collision-related injury and associated costs.