More than 1 million people were killed in accidents on U.S. roads in the 29-year period from Jan. 1, 1975, through Dec. 31, 2003.
The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System maintains a database that provides detailed information about 1,284,629 of these fatalities. The information comes largely from police officers called to crash scenes.
Such an enormous database allows researchers to test a wide variety of specific hypotheses about the causes of traffic fatalities. In the current issue of Chance, traffic safety expert Leonard Evans examines the role of sex differences.