Illinois Crash Facts and Statistics, 1998

NHTSA · 1998 · ROSA P / Illinois. Division of Traffic Safety

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Summary

This report, published by the Illinois Department of Transportation’s Division of Traffic Safety, presents comprehensive statistics on motor vehicle crashes in Illinois for the year 1998. The document aims to inform public awareness and support safety programs by detailing crash involvement, fatalities, injuries, and economic costs. The data primarily covers crashes on state-maintained roadways or those involving a fatality, excluding non-fatal crashes within the City of Chicago. In 1998, 1,393 persons died in 1,241 fatal crashes, while 58,558 others were injured. Although reported crashes increased by 3.1 percent and vehicle miles traveled rose by 2.3 percent compared to 1997, the mileage-death rate declined slightly. The total estimated economic cost of these crashes was $3.1 billion, with each fatality costing approximately $980,000. Alcohol was a significant factor, with 41.4 percent of fatally injured drivers who were tested having a positive Blood Alcohol Concentration (BAC). This rate was higher among drivers aged 16–24, at 46.3 percent. The report breaks down crash data by various demographics and vehicle types. Young drivers (ages 16–20) were over-represented in crashes, accounting for 13.9 percent of all drivers involved despite comprising only 8.3 percent of licensed drivers. Conversely, senior drivers (65 and older) were under-represented. Motorcycle crashes saw a sharp increase, rising 21.3 percent from the previous year, with motorcyclist fatalities increasing by 17.9 percent. Pedestrian fatalities totaled 188, with nearly 13 percent of those killed under age 15 and 23 percent aged 65 or older. Tractor-trailer crashes increased by 5.8 percent, resulting in 147 deaths. Spatial and temporal patterns reveal that 59.4 percent of fatal crashes occurred in urban areas, while 40.6 percent occurred on rural roadways. The majority of fatal crashes (56.7 percent) happened between 4:00 p.m. and 3:59 a.m., with Saturday being the day with the highest number of fatal incidents. The report also includes five-year trend data (1994–1998), showing a 10.4 percent decrease in total deaths and a 17.7 percent decline in the mileage death rate over that period, attributed to improvements in roadway engineering, enforcement, and occupant restraint usage.

Key finding

The mileage-death rate in Illinois declined by 17.7 percent from 1994 to 1998, reaching 1.4 deaths per hundred million vehicle miles traveled.

Methodology

dataset

Provenance

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Topics

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• incidence prevalence
• fatality injury trends
• demographic disparities
• comparative international

Information type

What kind of knowledge this paper contributes, grouped by family — independent of topic (what it is about) and method (how it was studied).

• Empirical Findings: crash risk outcomes, observational prevalence