Indiana Crash Facts 2006

NHTSA · 2006 · ROSA P / Indiana. Governor's Council on Impaired & Dangerous Driving

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Summary

This report, titled *Indiana Crash Facts 2006*, provides a comprehensive statistical analysis of traffic collisions in Indiana to inform policy-making and safety program design. Produced by the Indiana University Center for Urban Policy and the Environment in collaboration with the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI), the document serves as a data-driven resource for the Governor’s Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving. The primary motivation is to assess the state of traffic safety against benchmarks established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and to support the reduction of death, injury, and economic costs associated with crashes. The study utilizes data from the Vehicle Crash Records System maintained by the Indiana State Police, which contains over 200 data items per collision, including driver demographics, vehicle types, environmental conditions, and contributing factors. The analysis covers 192,724 traffic-related collisions resulting in injury or property damage in 2006. The report compares Indiana’s statistics with those of NHTSA Region V (including Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin) and the United States, using metrics such as fatalities per 100,000 population and per 100 million vehicle miles traveled (VMT). Key findings indicate that 899 people were killed in 817 fatal collisions, and 55,197 were injured. Alcohol was a factor in 6.1% of all collisions but accounted for 30.5% of fatal collisions, resulting in 273 deaths. Speed-related collisions comprised 7.4% of the total. Geographically, while 66.2% of all collisions occurred in urban areas, 68.8% of fatal collisions occurred in rural areas. October and November saw the highest collision rates. Young drivers aged 16 and 17 were involved in collisions at a rate of 25%, significantly higher than the 5.7% rate for drivers aged 25–44. Regarding safety equipment, 50% of individuals suffering fatalities or incapacitating injuries were restrained, but only 29% of those in alcohol-related collisions were restrained. Among young drivers under 25 who were killed, 52.3% were unrestrained. The report concludes by contextualizing these findings within broader trends and policy goals. Indiana’s fatality rates per 100,000 population generally exceeded those of Region V and the U.S., though rates per VMT were lower. The document highlights specific targets for improvement, such as reducing total traffic fatalities by 2% by 2008 and increasing seat belt observational use to 90%. It also notes a new law requiring all vehicle occupants to wear safety belts. The data serves as an analytical foundation for designing targeted interventions in areas such as alcohol impairment, speeding, young driver safety, and motorcycle safety, aiming to align Indiana’s performance with national safety standards.

Key finding

In 2006, Indiana recorded 899 traffic fatalities, with alcohol-related factors present in 30.5 percent of fatal collisions and young drivers (ages 16-17) involved in collisions at a rate of 25 percent.

Methodology

dataset

Provenance

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Topics

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

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