by Jim Rose in economic history, politics - USA, transport economics Tags: road accident rates, road safety

The large drop in white young white male deaths so dominates figure 1 that it conceals a halving in white female deaths. These measures in figure 1 are not related to propensity to drive a car. It must be hypothesised that women were driving more than they used to in the 1950s and 1960s. Nearly all of the decline in white young female road deaths has been since 1990.

Figure 1: motor vehicle related deaths of males and females aged 15 to 24 by race, USA, 1950 – 2013

Source: Centres for Disease Control and Prevention.

Deaths of black males young black males in the road actually increased in the 1980s before falling again. There has been no change at all really in the number of deaths of young black females since 1950.