title: Associations of distraction involvement and age with driver injury severities.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  This paper investigates the associations between the severity of injuries sustained by a driver who is involved in a two-vehicle crash, the existence and type of driver distraction as well as driver's age. Few studies investigated distraction as it relates to injury severity. Moreover, these studies did not consider driver age which is a significant factor related to driving behavior and the ability to respond in a crash situation.
  
  
  METHODS
  An ordered logit model was built to predict injury severity sustained by drivers using data from the U.S. National Automotive Sampling System's General Estimates System (2003 to 2008). Various factors (e.g., weather, gender, and speeding) were statistically controlled for, but the main focus was on the interaction of driver age and distraction type.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The trends observed for young and mid-age drivers were similar. For these age groups, dialing or texting on the cell phone, passengers, and in-vehicle sources resulted in an increase in a likelihood of more severe injuries. Talking on the cell phone had a similar effect for younger drivers but was not significant for mid-age drivers. Inattention and distractions outside the vehicle decreased the odds of severe injuries. For older drivers, the highest odds of severe injuries were observed with dialing or texting on a cell phone, followed by in-vehicle sources and talking on the cell phone. All these sources were associated with an increased likelihood of injury severity. Similar to young and mid-age drivers, distractions outside the vehicle decreased the odds of severe injuries. Other distraction types did not have a significant effect for the older age group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The results support previous literature and extend our understanding of crash injury severity.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings have implications for policy making and the design of distraction mitigation systems.
authors: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, ON M5S 3G8, Canada. Electronic address: donmez@mie.utoronto.ca.
authors: Birsen
authors: B
authors: Donmez
authors: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, 5 King's College Road, Toronto, ON M5S 3G8, Canada.
authors: Zishu
authors: Z
authors: Liu
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D040421:Cell Phone; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D016015:Logistic Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D060145:Text Messaging; D015599:Trauma Severity Indices; D014481:United States; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000453:epidemiology*; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Driver age; Driver distraction; General Estimates System; Injury severity; Ordered logit model