The present report deals with crash involvement—that is, with the driver or vehicle characteristics that are related to the likelihood of a crash. Sixty-eight percent of crashes involved passenger cars, 11 percent involved light trucks and vans, and 21 percent were between cars and light trucks and vans. A 16-year-old driver was over seven times more likely to be in a single-vehicle rollover crash, over five times more likely to be in a single-vehicle nonrollover crash, and more than twice as likely to be in a two-vehicle crash as was the safest driver overall—a 45-year-old. Violation History

Driving history was a strong predictor of crash involvement for two-car and single-car crashes, ranking second only to driver age. We found that, regardless of size, newer cars were slightly less at risk for crash involvement. (This is most likely the case.) To allow comparisons of their relative importance in predicting crash involvement, the improvement in goodness of fit for each model over the base model (including driver age, violation history, gender, and vehicle age) is presented in tables V.1 and V.2. GAO Comments

1. We found that lighter vehicles were more likely to be involved in single vehicle rollovers. 2. 4. 5. S.E.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO examined the factors that contribute to vehicular crashes, focusing on: (1) drivers' age, gender, and driving history; and (2) vehicle size and age.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) driver characteristics far outweigh vehicle factors in predicting vehicular crashes; (2) drivers who are younger, male, and have a history of traffic violations, particularly alcohol violations, are more likely to be involved in single-vehicle crashes; (3) drivers 65 and older are the second most likely group to be involved in crashes; (4) older vehicles are slightly more at risk for crash involvement, but other factors that are linked to vehicle age may also play a part in older cars' involvement in crashes; (5) light cars are three times more likely to be involved in single-vehicle rollover crashes than heavy cars; (6) a car's wheel-base or engine size is a better predictor of crash involvement; and (7) light trucks and vans show a similar crash-involvement pattern except that driver gender is generally not a significant factor in predicting light truck and van crashes..