Policy Instruments in Injury Crashes

Abstract

Alcohol prohibition and law enforcement deployment are important policies designed to increase traffic safety and reduce injury crashes. This study uses data on county-level law enforcement and injury crashes to analyze the effect of traffic law enforcement and alcohol prohibition. The analysis controls for other factors that affect injury crashes such as age groups, road factors, and behavioral factors including driving under the influence convictions and suspended licenses. Analysis is presented through a negative binomial regression methodology. Results indicate that both increasing law enforcement personnel and alcohol prohibition reduce the number of injury crashes within a county. Moreover, if policymakers’ goals are to reduce the count of injury crashes to zero, law enforcement and alcohol prohibition are important combined factors in this goal.

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