The correlation between injury, death, vehicle speed, and traffic volume
during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has received some much needed
attention by researchers (Lee et al., 2020; Liao and Lowry, 2021; Stiles
et al., 2021). Yet much remains to be learned regarding the rise in
traffic violence and death on our roadways during the COVID-19 pandemic.
This exploratory paper aims to build on that research and those cited
below by investigating the prevalence of roadway behavior more broadly
classified as risky. We use five years of linked crash and hospital data
provided by the Illinois Departments of Transportation and Public
Health from 2016 through 2020. Through the presentation of descriptive
statistics we compare occurrences of risky behavior in the four
preceding years to occurrences in 2020. Our purpose is to better
understand the circumstances and contributing factors of linked crashes
so they may be mitigated through action resulting in the prevention of
injury and death.
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