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Health Indicator Report of Deaths due to Motor Vehicle-Related Injuries

Motor vehicle crashes are the 2nd leading cause of unintentional injury death in the United States and in New Jersey.

Age-Adjusted Death Rate due to Motor Vehicle-Related Injuries by County, New Jersey, 2018-2020


Notes

County is the decedent's county of residence, not the county where the injury occurred.

Data Sources

  • Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics. Underlying Cause of Death File. CDC WONDER On-line Database accessed at [https://wonder.cdc.gov/Deaths-by-Underlying-Cause.html]
  • Death Certificate Database, Office of Vital Statistics and Registry, New Jersey Department of Health
  • Population Estimates, [https://www.nj.gov/labor/lpa/dmograph/est/est_index.html State Data Center], New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development

Definition

Deaths with motor vehicle-related injury as the underlying cause of death. Motor vehicle-related deaths include motor vehicle and motorcycle drivers and passengers, pedestrians, and bicyclists struck by motor vehicles both on roadways in traffic and in other areas such as parking lots and driveways. ICD-10 codes: V02-V04, V09.0, V09.2, V12-V14, V19.0-V19.2, V19.4-V19.6, V20-V79, V80.3-V80.5, V81.0-V81.1, V82.0-V82.1, V83-V86, V87.0-V87.8, V88.0-V88.8, V89.0, V89.2

Numerator

Number of deaths due to motor vehicle-related injuries

Denominator

Total number of persons in the population

Healthy People Objective: Reduce motor vehicle crash-related deaths: Deaths per 100,000 population

U.S. Target: 12.4 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)
State Target: 7.1 deaths per 100,000 population (age-adjusted)

Other Objectives

'''Revised Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-5''': Reduce the age-adjusted mortality rate due to motor vehicle-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 5.8 among the total population, 5.4 among Whites, 7.7 among Blacks, 5.9 among Hispanics, and 3.2 among Asians. '''Original Healthy New Jersey 2020 Objective IVP-5''': Reduce the age-adjusted mortality rate due to motor vehicle-related injuries per 100,000 standard population to 7.1 among the total population, 6.8 among Whites, 9.6 among Blacks, 8.2 among Hispanics, and 3.6 among Asians.

How Are We Doing?

The number of motor vehicle crashes occurring in New Jersey experienced a large decline in 2020, from over 270,000 each year between 2016 and 2019 to fewer than 191,000 in 2020. Meanwhile, the injury rate remained stable at about 22% of crashes.[https://www.state.nj.us/transportation/refdata/accident/crash_statistics.shtm ^1^] However, fatalities rose in 2020. Death rates due to motor vehicle-related injuries are on a slow downward trend in New Jersey and the United States dating back to the early 1990's, however there were increases in both the US and New Jersey rates between 2019 and 2020. In New Jersey, most of the increase was among Blacks. While there is usually no statistically significant difference in age-adjusted death rates among Blacks, Whites, and Hispanics in New Jersey, in 2020 the rate among Blacks was significantly higher than among other racial/ethnic groups. It is conceivable that the COVID-19 pandemic caused an increase in other causes of death due to delays in medical care and fears of going to the hospital and being exposed to COVID. The age-adjusted motor vehicle-related death rate among males is nearly triple that of females and about 70% of motor vehicle-related fatalities are among males. County rates vary from 3.7 per 100,000 population (age-adjusted) in Hudson to 16.9 in Cumberland (2018-2020 data).

How Do We Compare With the U.S.?

The New Jersey motor vehicle-related mortality rate is about half that of the nation as a whole.

What Is Being Done?

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "[http://www.nhtsa.gov/CIOT Click It or Ticket]" campaign is the most successful seat belt enforcement campaign ever, helping achieve an all-time high national seat belt usage rate of 90 percent.[https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/seat-belts ^2^] New Jersey's laws to protect drivers, passengers, bicyclists, and pedestrians are among the most stringent in the nation and can be viewed at [https://www.ghsa.org/state-laws].

Available Services

[https://www.njoag.gov/about/divisions-and-offices/division-of-highway-traffic-safety-home/division-of-highway-traffic-safety-child-passenger-safety/ Free Safety Checks for Infant and Child Car Seats]

Health Program Information

[https://www.njoag.gov/about/divisions-and-offices/division-of-highway-traffic-safety-home/ NJ Division of Highway Traffic Safety] [https://www.state.nj.us/mvc/license/initiallicense.htm New Jersey Motor Vehicle Commission, Graduated Driver License (GDL) program] [https://www.saferoadsforallnj.com/ NJ Department of Transportation, Driving Toward Zero Deaths]
Page Content Updated On 06/29/2022, Published on 07/05/2022
The information provided above is from the Department of Health's NJSHAD web site (https://nj.gov/health/shad). The information published on this website may be reproduced without permission. Please use the following citation: " Retrieved Thu, 28 March 2024 5:25:26 from Department of Health, New Jersey State Health Assessment Data Web site: https://nj.gov/health/shad ".

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