So they only consider data from recent crashes. It would have been nice to see the data from crashes that happened 20 years ago with what were at the time late model vehicles. It might reveal that crashes between what are now old vehicles didn’t have such high fatalities. The fatalities problem may have more to do with the mixture of old and new vehicles sharing the same roads.
There is a popular graph that shows vehicle fatalities per mile traveled, and it has gone down every year until recently. It would be nice to be able to break that down to see the age of the vehicle at the time of the crash, to see how many died in vehicles over and under 10 years old.
I guess I must be imagining things when I drive through a low income neighborhood and the vehicles are all older. In one particular neighborhood it seems that 1 in 4 cars on the road have no muffler.
I guess I’m “less responsible”, and I must “drink and drive”, even though I don’t “have to work a night shift” and actually do “use a seat belt”, because my cars are 11 and 14 years old…
I don’t know if it’s what he meant or not, but I do believe folks in older cars are more likely to get pulled over. Can’t speculate on the rate of alcohol abuse, drug abuse, etc as far as income. But, yeah, I feel a little less likely to get “profiled” in a nicer car. Or a non sporty car. Buick Lesabre is the perfect getaway vehicle. Lol
*"The limitation of his study is that it is only a descriptive assessment of the relationship between an occupant’s injury severity and the vehicle’s age …. Statistical model analysis of the relationship between the fatality risk and vehicle age/MY that control 1 4 for other factors (e.g., Delta-V, seat belt use, age, sex) could be part of future analysis".
Translation - “We only looked at vehicle age and injury statistics and noticed a correlation. If you’ve got the time, money and/or unpaid Grad Students to research the cause, send them to me at …”
The study was enough to be the basis for several articles on car websites, and they quoted the actual numbers comparing the oldest and newest cars in the study.
They didn’t consider vehicle weight when they mentioned Delta-V, seat belts, age, and sex as possible things to consider for a future study. This leads people to think they should get rid of their full size car like a 2002 Crown Victoria and buy a new compact like a Toyota Yaris to be safe.
I have been poor a few times in my life. Also, on the contrary, there have been times that I haven’t been poor. It is kinda baffling but it is what it is.
I’ll admit it. I’m generally doing something when I get pulled over. Whether I’m in an old pile or something nicer. I always feel like I’m more apt to get pulled over in something that draws attention, though
When I got stopped for no reason I think I was profiled… my office was in a rough neighborhood and our shop was across from a drug house. Maybe I looked like a drug mule in a rental car.
I was always paranoid driving my red 84 Corvette. Ohio Troopers irradiated me every time I passed one… my radar detector went crazy… Drive 55 mph in the right lane and STILL I could cook a hot dog on the antenna from the radar. Never got stopped in that car.
I’ve relied on statistics for all of my professional life but like almost anything else, they can be used inappropriately, deceptively or selectively to support almost anything that a liar, crook or politician wants to promote.
Given enough time I could find enough “statistics” to prove that at 60 something and 5’6", I’m better looking than Tom Sellick and Bo Derrick is homely but even even in my dreams I’d have to admit that it would be ridiculous.
The important point is that we’re smarter than a fish, sucking in any shiny bit of metal and feathers thinking it’s good food.
Be skeptical, understand what you’re biteing on and consider the motivation of the person on the other end of the line.
