Tribal Road Safety: Get the Facts

How big is the problem?

• Injuries are the leading cause of death for AI/AN ages 1 to 54 and the third leading cause of death overall. ¹
• Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of unintentional injury for AI/AN ages 1 to 44. Adult motor vehicle-related death rates for AI/AN are 1.5 times more than that of whites and that of blacks.¹  
• Among infants less than one year of age, AI/AN have  8 times the rate of motor-vehicle traffic deaths than that of non-hispanic whites.²
• Among AI/AN 19 years and younger, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death, followed by drowning and poisoning.¹  

Who is most at risk?

Children

Among AI/AN 19 years and younger, motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of unintentional injury-related death, followed by drowning and poisoning.

Among ethnic groups in the United States, AI/AN children experience the highest rates of injury mortality and morbidity. AI/AN ages 19 years and younger are at greater risk of preventable injury-related deaths than others in the same age group in the United States. Compared with blacks and whites, this group has the highest injury-related death rates for motor vehicle crashes, pedestrian events, and suicide. Rates for these causes are two to three times greater than rates for whites the same age.³

Males

AI/AN as a group are at increased risk of injury, but AI/AN males are at especially high risk for many types of injuries. Compared to their female counterparts, AI/AN males ages 20 years and older are twice as likely to die from a motor vehicle crash and three times more likely to die from pedestrian-related injury. ¹  

What are the major risk factors?

Low seat belt use

• According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Bureau of Indian Affairs Indian Highway Safety Program, the 2016 overall rate of seat belt use on 17 reservations is 77.7%. Belt use varies greatly across reservations, ranging from a low of 49.0 percent to a high of 92.6 percent.⁴ 
• Sixty-five percent (65%) of AI/AN passenger vehicle occupants who died in motor vehicle crashes were unrestrained at the time of the fatal crash.⁵

Low child safety seat use

• Though child safety seat use rates for AI/AN communities vary greatly, rates are generally much lower than that of other racial groups.⁶ In 2011, the child restraint  use for children from birth to age 7 ranged from 79 percent to 99 percent.⁷ In one study of three Northwest tribes, car seat use rate ranged from 12%–21% for children from birth to age 4. ⁸

Alcohol impaired driving

• AI/AN have a relatively high prevalence of alcohol-impaired driving and the highest alcohol-related motor vehicle mortality rates among racial/ethnic populations.^9,10
• Among AI/AN fatal crashes in 2014 an estimated 40 percent were alcohol-related.⁵ Nationally, during this same time period, 31 percent of total crashes were alcohol-related.¹¹

How can injuries be prevented?

Proven and effective strategies to reduce motor vehicle crash-related injuries and deaths are well established; these include use of occupant restraints, primary laws, high visibility enforcement, and strict blood alcohol content laws. Although each AI/AN community is politically and culturally unique, effective strategies can be tailored to meet the specific needs of tribes.

Child safety seats

• Child safety seats reduce the risk of death in passenger cars by 71% for infants, and by 54% for toddlers ages 1 to 4 years.⁷
• There is strong evidence that child safety seat laws, safety seat distribution and education programs, community-wide education and enforcement campaigns, and incentive-plus-education programs are effective in increasing child safety seat use.¹²

Seat belt use

• There is strong evidence that seat belt use laws, especially primary enforcement laws, and enhanced enforcement campaigns are effective in increasing seat belt use.¹³

Impaired driving

Proven measures to reduce alcohol-impaired driving include:

• Aggressively enforcing 0.08% BAC laws, minimum legal drinking age laws and zero tolerance laws for drivers younger than 21 years old.¹⁴
• Utilizing sobriety checkpoints. DUI checkpoints are effective in reducing alcohol-related crashes and death by approximately 17-25%.¹⁵
• Using multi-faceted community-based approaches to alcohol control and DUI prevention.^16,17

Teen drivers

• There are proven methods to helping teens become safer drivers. Research suggests that the most comprehensive graduated drivers licensing (GDL) programs are associated with reductions of 38% and 40% in fatal and injury crashes, respectively, among 16-year-old drivers.¹⁸
• Graduated driver licensing (GDL) systems are designed to delay full licensure while allowing teens to get their initial driving experience under low-risk conditions.