Costs and Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Motor Vehicle–Related Injuries and Deaths: Project Report and Online-Tool Documentation

Abstract

The purpose of this project was to support states and local communities in making evidencebased resource allocation decisions relating to the implementation of effective evidence-based interventions for preventing motor vehicle-related injury. This report documents the data and assumptions that were used to develop the interactive online tool that states can use to assess state-specific costs and effectiveness of different interventions designed to prevent motor vehicle-related injuries. It also includes a user guide that describes how to use the tool. The tool should help states understand the trade-offs and prioritize the most cost-effective interventions to reduce motor vehicle-related injuries. The tool is available to the public at www.cdc.gov/motorvehiclesafety/calculator. The audience for this report is the users of the online tool, state and local health and safety officials seeking information on the effectiveness and costs of the various interventions. This work was sponsored by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Reference to any specific commercial products, programs, or services by trade name, trademark, manufacturer, or otherwise does not necessarily constitute or imply its endorsement, recommendation, or favoring by the U.S. government. The views and opinions of authors expressed herein do not necessarily state or reflect those of the U.S. government and shall not be used for advertising or product or program endorsement purposes. RAND researchers have undertaken related work that extended the online tool by including two additional interventions. This additional work is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is incorporated into this report. In addition, an accompanying report uses the data in the tool to conduct policy analyses of traffic safety spending, and four research briefs highlight those analyses:

Costs and Effectiveness of Interventions to Reduce Motor Vehicle–Related Injuries and Deaths: Supplement to Tool Documentation

“…The more complete documentation, which includes discussion of how we selected interventions for inclusion in the tool and how we programmed the tool, is available in Ringel et al, 2015. RAND researchers have also undertaken related work that used the data in the tool to conduct policy analyses of traffic safety spending. This work was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.…”

“…The details of how we arrived at the proportions of lives saved and injuries prevented are provided in Chapter Four of Ringel et al, 2015. These are assumed to be consistent across states (that is, implementing a universal motorcycle helmet law will reduce deaths in motorcycle crashes by the same percentage in every state).…”

“…Our previous work developing these cost estimates is provided in Chapter Three of Ringel et al, 2015.…”

“…This report documents which data, assumptions, and methods we updated. The audience for this report is the users of the online tool, state and local health and safety officials seeking information on the effectiveness and costs of the 14 motor vehicle injury prevention interventions included in MV PICCS.The more complete documentation, which includes discussion of how we selected interventions for inclusion in the tool and how we programmed the tool, is available in Ringel et al, 2015. RAND researchers have also undertaken related work that used the data in the tool to conduct policy analyses of traffic safety spending. This work was sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.…”