Characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions in California

Details

• Personal Author:
  Alpert JP ; James S ; Rojek JJ ; Tiesman, Hope M. ; Wolfe S
• Description:
  Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the situational and individual officer characteristics of officer-involved vehicle collisions that result in fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: Data on 35,840 vehicle collisions involving law enforcement officers in California occurring between January 2000 and December 2009 are examined. A descriptive analysis of collision characteristics is presented. Findings: There were 39 officers killed by collisions over this study period and 7,684 officers who received some type injury. Incidents involving officers on motorcycles represented 39% of officer fatalities and 39% of severe injuries. In the case of fatalities, 33% of officers were reported as wearing seatbelts, 38% were not wearing a seatbelt, and seatbelt use was not stated in 29% of car fatalities. Research limitations/implications: The findings only represent one state and the analysis is based on an estimated 86% of collisions that occurred during the study period due to missing data. Nonetheless, the results are based on a robust sample and address key limitations in the existing literature. Practical implications: During the study period in California the estimated financial impact of collisions reached into the hundreds of millions of dollars when considering related fatality, injury, and vehicle damage costs combined. These impacts highlight the need for the law enforcement community to give greater attention to this issue. Originality/value: At the time of this writing there was no published independent research that compares the situational and officer characteristics across fatality, injury, and non-injury outcomes in these events. The findings reported here will help inform emerging interest in this issue within the law enforcement, academic, and policy-making communities. [Description provided by NIOSH]
• Subjects:
  Accidents, Occupational Automobiles Decision Making Emergency Responders Law Enforcement Mortality Occupational Health Safety
• Keywords:
  Accident-analysis Accidents Author Keywords: Law Enforcement Crashes Decision-making Emergency-responders Injuries Law-enforcement Law-enforcement-workers Mortality-data Mortality-rates Motor-vehicles Officer Police-officers Surveillance Traumatic-injuries Vehicle Collisions

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• ISSN:
  1363-951X
• Document Type:
  Text
• Genre:
  Journal Article
• Place as Subject:
  Missouri ; OSHA Region 3 ; OSHA Region 4 ; OSHA Region 6 ; OSHA Region 7 ; South Carolina ; Texas ; West Virginia
• CIO:
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
• Division:
  DSR - Division of Safety Research
• Topic:
  Workplace Safety & Health
• Location:
  North America
• Pages in Document:
  458-477
• Volume:
  38
• Issue:
  3
• NIOSHTIC Number:
  nn:20046485
• Citation:
  Policing 2015 Jul-Sep; 38(3):458-477
• Federal Fiscal Year:
  2015
• Peer Reviewed:
  True
• Source Full Name:
  Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management
• Collection(s):
  National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:e318b9f5f46db7250ed0052a6842dbef29c7e31e1eccc70d736620660e98537729fe26852cc6d989a2e5a6307f63981dd7bdd1a2b2d195d030662cb6f93f1df0
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/201533/cdc_201533_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 232.43 KB ]