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Abstract: This paper assesses group differences in severe and fatal road-traffic accidents by using a unique database that merges road-traffic records with the Israeli census data. The database traces, over a period of 9 years, a group of drivers that comprises 20% of the Israeli population and explores the probability of their being involved in an accident. This unique database enables the investigation of drivers’ socioeconomic and demographic characteristics, while controlling for a variety of variables, such as estimated daily distance traveled and license type. Testing a previously published theoretical paper on the social bases of accidents, the findings expose significant group differences in estimated probabilities of being involved in severe and fatal accidents. For example, estimated probabilities of accident involvement are higher for males than for females, for non-Jewish drivers than for Jewish, and for drivers whose origins are in Africa and Asia than in America and Europe. Furthermore, the higher one''s education and socioeconomic status, the lower is the probability of accident-involvement. The implications of the findings for developing road-safety programs and suggestions for future research are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The technology used in cars to protect occupants is constantly developing. Demonstrating the beneficial effects in the field is complex as the most recent vehicles are generally used by drivers who differ from other drivers and who drive in different traffic conditions. This paper presents an overall estimation of the consequences of changes in the secondary safety of cars, taking account of most of these factors. The data come from information collected about injury road traffic crashes by the police in France between 1996 and 2005. The risk of the driver being killed has been evaluated for the 144,034 drivers involved in two-car crashes and for the 63,621 drivers involved in single-car crashes. The study shows that when a recent car is in collision with an older car the driver of the former is better protected than the driver of the latter. These improvements in secondary safety are not observed in the case of single-car crashes, very probably because of higher impact speeds. Our findings also confirm the need for protection systems to be better adapted to the specific characteristics of users and for an improvement in the crash compatibility of vehicles, in particular to overcome the consequences of differences between the masses of vehicles. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]