Major Cost Drivers of Motor Vehicle Crashes Involving Air Force Military Personnel and the Influence of the Military Environment

摘要

MVCs involving USAF military personnel when off duty/off base are a critical concern for the DoD. Apart from productivity loss, total cost based on 2010 CY dollars was $356 M. Categorical data and multiple regression analyses were conducted on AF Safety Center data collected over 22 years. The analyses revealed that USAF males with Company Grade rank and Airmen 17-20 years of age were more vulnerable to fatal MVCs, while Airmen and age 20-25 years, were associated with the majority of MVCs. MVCs usually occur between 0900-1400 & 1900-2400 hours, while the riskiest times are 0500-0800 & 0100-0400. Alcohol correlated with the crash severity causing death and disability among service members. Alcohol was significantly associated with the Airman and Senior NCO ranks while impaired driving increased during the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan as well as the Gulf War. Environmental conditions, characterized by periods with high workload and pace of operations, resulted in greater volume and severity of MVCs. Alcohol involvement in MVCs peaked during those periods and Field Grade Officers were significantly affected by those environmental conditions. The Airman group was the least impacted by the pace of operations with respect to their involvement in MVCs. Ultimately, human and environmental factors resulted in a regression model for the volume of MVCs, exhibiting an R2 of 0.99.