This book examines causes and deterrents of transportation accidents by mode--automobiles, truck, air, recreational boating, commercial vessels and railroads--with the focus on accidents in the U.S. The examination enhances our understanding for developing effective multimodal public policies for improving transportation safety. The discussion reveals that the primary cause of accidents in one mode may not be the primary cause in another mode and equally that an effective deterrent for improving safety in one mode may not be an effective deterrent for another mode. The book will be of interest to policy makers and investigators of transportation safety.
The book consists of nine chapters. Following the Introduction chapter, possible causes of highway accidents--driver, vehicle, and highway characteristics--are examined in Chapter 2 along with economic and environmental factors. Chapter 3 then discusses the effectiveness of various deterrent policies--motor vehicle inspection, the minimum legal drinking age, the speed limit, and seat belt laws--for auto accidents, as well as the effects of vehicle speed and speed variance on these accidents. This is followed by a discussion of causes and deterrents of truck accidents in Chapter 4. Chapter 5 considers air accidents, discussing the role of economic deregulation and type of air carrier. Chapter 6 addresses recreational boating accidents, with particular attention given to alcohol involvement in these accidents. Chapter 7 examines commercial vessel accidents with a discussion of safety standards and enforcement. Chapter 8 considers rail accidents, with particular attention given to the effects of deregulation. The final chapter summarizes lessons learned from the previous chapters for improving transportation safety across modes, i.e., for reducing transportation accidents, accident risk, and accident severity.
PETER D. LOEB is Professor of Economics at Rutgers University, Newark. Dr. Loeb has published extensively on transportation safety issues and has testified on such matters before U.S. Congressional Committees, the New Jersey Assembly (Judiciary Committee) and the U.S. Department of Transportation (NHTSA). He has authored and coauthored articles that appeared in The American Economic Review, the Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Econometrica, Accident Analysis and Prevention and the Southern Economic Journal, among others. He is also the coauthor of The Stat Tutor (1991) and the coeditor of Essays in Regional Economic Studies (1983).
WAYNE K. TALLEY is Professor of Economics, holding the designation of Eminent Scholar, at Old Dominion University. He has been a faculty fellow at the U.S. Department of Transportation's Transportation Systems Center, an industry economist at the Interstate Commerce Commission, a faculty fellow at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, a visiting fellow of the Transport Studies Unit at Oxford University, and a visiting research fellow at the Centre for Transport Policy Analysis at the University of Wollongong, Australia. Dr. Talley has written extensively on a number of transportation issues and is the author (or coauthor) of the books, Introduction to Transportation (1983), Transport Carrier Costing (1988), and Ocean Container Transportation: An Operational Perspective (1990).
THOMAS J. ZLATOPER is Associate Professor of Economics at John Carroll University. Dr. Zlatoper is also a research associate at the Center for Regional Economic Issues, Case Western Reserve University. He has authored articles on transportation safety issues that appeared in Journal of Transport Economics and Policy, Quarterly Review of Economics and Business, Accident Analysis and Prevention, and Applied Economics.
