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![Author comment: In the weeks after the 9/11 terror attacks, many Americans chose to drive long distances rather than to fly. At least one study has suggested that the number of car-related fatalities increased during that period. We were curious about whether car-related injuries had also increased. By analyzing publicly-available traffic incident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, just for the days in September after the 11th, we found some evidence that the number of non-incapacitating car-related injuries increased in the last 2 weeks of September 2001 compared to the same dates in the previous year. At the state level, this observation was also true in New York, though not in any of the other examined states. While these findings are by no means conclusive, they do suggest a need for improvement in risk communication, as individuals may make poor and possibly dangerous choices for fear of risks (such as terrorism) that may have been inflated by word-of-mouth and by the lay media.](assets/img/article_icons/noteworthy.png)
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Driving deaths and injuries post-9/11
Authors Deonandan R , Backwell
Published 1 December 2011 Volume 2011:4 Pages 803—807
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/IJGM.S27049
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 2
Raywat Deonandan, Amber Backwell
Interdisciplinary School of Health Sciences, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, ON, Canada
Objectives: In the days immediately following the terror attacks of 9/11, thousands of Americans chose to drive rather than to fly. We analyzed highway accident data to determine whether or not the number of fatalities and injuries following 9/11 differed from those in the same time period in 2000 and 2002.
Methods: Motor crash data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Fatality Analysis Reporting System were analyzed to determine the numbers and rates of fatalities and injuries nationally and in selected states for the 20 days after September 11, in each of 2000, 2001, and 2002.
Results: While the fatality rate did not change appreciably, the number of less severe injuries was statistically higher in 2001 than in 2000, both nationally and in New York State.
Conclusions: The fear of terror attacks may have compelled Americans to drive instead of fly. They were thus exposed to the heightened risk of injury and death posed by driving. The need for public health to manage risk perception and communication is thus heightened in an era of global fear and terrorism.
Keywords: public health, traffic, injuries, epidemiology
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