MILEAGE CRASH RATES FOR CERTAIN CAR MAKE AND MODEL YEAR COMBINATIONS: A PRELIMINARY STUDY

Using North Carolina accident, registration, and motor vehicle inspection data, crash rates per million vehicle miles are derived for several model years of each of 30 common makes of passenger cars. Single vehicle and injury crash rates are also examined for these same makes. Certain adjustments for recycled odometers are made at the outset. The major finding of this investigation is that the overall crash rates within makes show a stable, ubiquitous tendency for each newer model to have a crash rate lower than the previous model year. Overall crash rates for the oldest vehicles are generally about two-and-one-half times greater than their newest counterparts (i.e., six model years later). Within a given model year, there do not appear to be large differences either within a given market classes or among the various market classes. The single vehicle and injury crash rates resemble the overall crash rates but are somewhat more variable. In order to further study the important question of make-model crash involvement differences, recommendations are made for obtaining the necessary exposure information through state motor vehicle inspection programs. /Author/