By successfully linking hospital discharge data with motor vehicle crash reports to account for crash injuries more accurately, CIRP researchers make clear the continued need for data integration efforts to classify the true burden of crash-related injuries. Armed with this information, prevention efforts can be tailored to populations most at risk for crash-related injuries.

Information from New Jersey police-reported crashes showed that children were typically restrained during crashes, but not always correctly, especially among younger children. Many drivers in this study did not follow best practice recommendations for child restraint use, as well as NJ child passenger safety laws.

This study shares how the NJ-SHO Data Warehouse combines New Jersey statewide administrative databases to create one comprehensive data source. The data warehouse fills in gaps previously found in traffic safety research and enables investigation of research questions that previously could not be addressed due to the lack of appropriate data.

Compared with their non-autistic peers, young drivers with autism have lower rates of moving violations and license suspensions, as well as similar to lower crash rates.  Although half as likely to crash due to speeding, the autistic young drivers were three times more likely to crash when making a left or U-turn, suggesting the need for tailored training in these areas.

Doctors typically discuss depression, suicide, and substance abuse with adolescent patients with ADHD. However, they rarely discuss risky sexual behaviors and almost never discuss driver readiness and medication diversion. Additional resources and training are needed to help clinicians provide the best care for patients with ADHD.

To advance traffic safety knowledge, the ability to link different data sources is necessary. We need to help more researchers gain access to this data, as well as use it. Reforming state laws may be necessary to increase access to individual-level data. 

Teens, older adults (age 65 and older), and those from low-income neighborhoods are more likely to be driving vehicles that are less safe (older models without electronic stability control and other safety features), putting them at greater risk of injury and death in the event of a crash. Ensuring these drivers are in the safest vehicles they can afford is a promising approach to reducing crash injuries and fatalities.

Adolescent drivers with ADHD are more likely to crash, be issued traffic and moving violations, and engage in risky driving behaviors than their peers without ADHD. More research is needed to measure if and how these risky behaviors contribute to crash risk.

Amblyopia—known as “lazy eye”—and unilateral vision impairment (UVI) are two conditions that cause reduced vision in one eye and decreased depth perception, both important in driving. This study found that young adults with these conditions were less likely to get licensed than those with no visual impairment. However, when licensed, neither of these conditions was associated with an elevated crash risk.

This study evaluated the quality of the metrics used to create the NJ-SHO Data Warehouse. The evaluation of this linkage suggests that it was of high quality and has the ability to support many rigorous studies.

Older drivers (age 65+) crash 27% less than middle-aged drivers (age 35-54) but are 40% more likely to die in a crash as compared to middle-aged drivers. Future research is needed to identify factors that influence risk of crash involvement and survivability after a crash.

This study is the first to estimate sensitivity and specificity of EHR-based ADHD diagnosis codes in classifying ADHD status. Findings show that the EHR-based algorithm was able to identify ADHD cases accurately and efficiently, proving that EHR-based diagnostic codes can be used by large-scale epidemiological and clinical studies with high sensitivity and specificity.

Lacking transportation is a major barrier to health care, and license suspension policies can contribute to this barrier. Contrary to popular belief, the majority of these suspensions are for non-driving related (NDR) events, such as failure to pay a court fee or appear in court. These NDR events are disproportionately imposed on low-income and racial and ethnic minorities. Developing policies to improve this transportation equity issue are needed.

This study found that the decline in crash rates from 2008-2012 among teen drivers following implementation of the GDL decal provision was not because of increased compliance with nighttime or passenger driving restrictions. Additional research is needed to understand how decal provisions may work to reduce young driver crashes.

This study found 1 in 3 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) acquired a driver’s license, compared to 83.5% of other adolescents. Of autistic adolescents who acquired a learner's permit, nearly 90% got licensed within 2 years of receiving it. These results show that license-related decisions are primarily made before the learner permit phase of driving, rather than during the learning-to-drive process.

After linking NJ’s statewide driver licensing and crash databases, this study found that 92% of intermediate drivers’ trips followed the passenger restriction of GDL and 97% followed the nighttime restriction of GDL. Compliance, however, was significantly lower among those living in low-income and urban areas, among male drivers, on weekends, and in summer.

This study summarizes methodological issues surrounding studies of  compliance with Graduated Driver Licensing (GDL) restrictions among young drivers with intermediate driver's licenses. The study uses a novel application of the quasi-induced exposure (QIE) technique to the measurement of GDL compliance among young drivers in New Jersey. Using the QIE method, the study estimated that 8% of drivers' trips were not in compliance with the GDL passenger restriction. 

Newly licensed teens with ADHD have an estimated 36% higher crash risk than other newly licensed teens, much lower than previously reported in other scientific studies. This risk persists during their initial driving years, regardless of gender or age when licensed. More research is needed to determine how ADHD affects crash risk to develop effective programs to manage that risk. 

After comparing crash rates of older and younger novice drivers, the findings support current GDL policies in NJ for 17- to 20-year-old drivers but nothing compelling to adopt additional policies for drivers licensed at age 21 to 24.  More research is needed on crash risk beyond age when licensed to help explain differences in long-term crash risk for young novice drivers.

This study examined the question of whether GDL restrictions should be applied to novice drivers age 18 and older. Novice drivers, ages 18 to 20, had initial high crash rates that steeply declined over the period of early licensure. This warrants further consideration of mandatory supervised learning periods, passenger limits, and nighttime driving restrictions.

This study validated the quasi-induced exposure (QIE) methods used to assess young driver trends. These methods can be used to address broader foundational and applied questions in young driver safety.

The New Jersey GDL decal provision was implemented in May 2010, and this study found that it was not associated with a change in citation or crash rates among NJ drivers under 21 years of age with learner’s permits between January 2006 and January 2012. The findings contrast with previous research that found a significant decrease in the crash rates of drivers with intermediate licenses after the decal provision.