Car Accidents
I. Introduction
Crash, boom, bang! In an instant, a car accident can change a person’s life forever. Each year, many unsuspecting drivers, passengers, and pedestrians are killed on the roads of the United States. The main question we ask ourselves is why? Are people killed because of high speed crashes? Did the airbags not deploy at the proper time? Were the roads in acceptable conditions? Unfortunately, we can not always determine the causes of all accidents, simply because we were not on the scene of the accident. There are many different reasons why fatal car accidents occur. Some accidents involve distractions, alcohol consumption, road hazards, or inclement weather. In this econometric paper, the goal is to determine why fatal car accidents occur and what we can do to prevent a possible fatal accident from occurring.
II. Empirical Model Specification
The following empirical equation is used to determine fatal car accidents (per 100,000 registered vehicles) using ten independent variables. Cross sectional data is collected from 2003, from all fifty states.
Eq (1): FCA = f(FUN, SAF, MIL, GAS, SPD, SBT, ROD, DRIY, DRIS, SUV + error term)
Where FCA measures the total number of fatal car accidents per 100,000 registered vehicles.
Table 1 lists the independent variables, their definitions, and their expected effect on fatal car accidents.
Table 1: Definition of Fatal Car Accident Independent Variables
|Variable |Definition |Expected Sign |
|FUN |State funding per mile of highways in 2003, |Negative |
| |measured by the amount of dollars spent (in | |
| |thousands) for funding highways, divided by
Crash, boom, bang! In an instant, a car accident can change a person’s life forever. Each year, many unsuspecting drivers, passengers, and pedestrians are killed on the roads of the United States. The main question we ask ourselves is why? Are people killed because of high speed crashes? Did the airbags not deploy at the proper time? Were the roads in acceptable conditions? Unfortunately, we can not always determine the causes of all accidents, simply because we were not on the scene of the accident. There are many different reasons why fatal car accidents occur. Some accidents involve distractions, alcohol consumption, road hazards, or inclement weather. In this econometric paper, the goal is to determine why fatal car accidents occur and what we can do to prevent a possible fatal accident from occurring.
II. Empirical Model Specification
The following empirical equation is used to determine fatal car accidents (per 100,000 registered vehicles) using ten independent variables. Cross sectional data is collected from 2003, from all fifty states.
Eq (1): FCA = f(FUN, SAF, MIL, GAS, SPD, SBT, ROD, DRIY, DRIS, SUV + error term)
Where FCA measures the total number of fatal car accidents per 100,000 registered vehicles.
Table 1 lists the independent variables, their definitions, and their expected effect on fatal car accidents.
Table 1: Definition of Fatal Car Accident Independent Variables
|Variable |Definition |Expected Sign |
|FUN |State funding per mile of highways in 2003, |Negative |
| |measured by the amount of dollars spent (in | |
| |thousands) for funding highways, divided by
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