Emergency Response Times for Fatal Motor Vehicle Crashes, 1975–2017

Abstract

Emergency response times are an important component of road safety outcomes. Research has shown that there are potential benefits from shortened response times in patient outcomes for motor vehicle crashes. While a safety analysis may identify a decrease in traffic fatalities, that decrease may be a result of improved road safety or it may simply reflect improved emergency response times. However, it is currently unclear how emergency response times have changed over the last few decades. With data from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), we identify the national trend in emergency response times from 1975 through 2017. To control for changes in response time, we analyze crashes that resulted in an immediate death. Results suggest that emergency response times have improved by approximately 50% over this timeframe. Additionally, we analyze response time trends in three states (North Carolina, Georgia, and Louisiana) that had consistent data and large sample sizes, finding patterns similar to the national trend. Outcomes suggest higher response times in rural areas. High standard deviations of average response times observed from 2003 to 2008 indicate a need for improvement in data collection. Future work could aim to better understand and reduce response times specific to certain regions and understand the effect of the popularization of cell phone usage. Our findings have important implications for fatality-based traffic safety analyses. Improving response time could help continue the trend of reduced mortality rates caused by motor vehicle crashes in the United States.