Fuel Efficiency and Automobile Safety: Single-Vehicle Highway Fatalities for Passenger Cars

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Abstract
This paper reports the results of an effort to shed some light on the relationship that might exist between enhanced standards and single-vehicle passenger car highway fatalities. Quantification of this relationship is not an easy task. Not surprisingly, the literature on modeling the relationship between fuel economy and highway fatalities is very scant. Our analytic framework consists of two submodels: a corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) submodel and a single-vehicle highwayfatalities submodel. Some of the variables that enter the CAFE relationship affect single-vehicle fatalities, as well. The results of this study are not unequivocal in every respect. However, they indicate that enhanced standards and automobile safety need not be at odds with each other.