Nice article, Rob. I do think lack of driver education and riskier behavior / distracted driving could explain some of the trend I think there are some other important variables to consider. Two came to mind reading your article: (1) vehicle size and weight and (2) medical inflation. Vehicles today are obscenely big and heavy. 4000lb car moving at 50mph has a lot more potential energy (severity) than a 2000lb. Car weights have been increasing steadily which would explain more severity. Medical inflation has also been increasing steadily - I'd be interested to see the III chart adjusted for med inflation.
Nice article, Rob. I do think lack of driver education and riskier behavior / distracted driving could explain some of the trend I think there are some other important variables to consider. Two came to mind reading your article: (1) vehicle size and weight and (2) medical inflation. Vehicles today are obscenely big and heavy. 4000lb car moving at 50mph has a lot more potential energy (severity) than a 2000lb. Car weights have been increasing steadily which would explain more severity. Medical inflation has also been increasing steadily - I'd be interested to see the III chart adjusted for med inflation.