Evaluating Post-Crash Care Accessibility of Emergency Medical Services (EMS) to Elderly Groups in Rural Areas

Rural areas face unique challenges following crashes due to longer emergency medical service (EMS) response times and limited access to advanced healthcare facilities. These delays can put the lives of elderly crash victims at greater risk, making timely care critical to their survival. Particularly for aging populations with higher vulnerability to severe injuries. As individuals age, increased physical fragility worsen the severity of injuries sustained in crashes. This makes it essential to ensure that older adults receive prompt and reliable post-crash care to improve their chances of survival. Despite ongoing efforts to improve transportation safety, gaps remain in understanding how post-crash care impacts survival and how EMS infrastructure can be optimized to reduce fatalities in rural settings. This research aims to address these critical gaps, focusing on survival analysis and EMS location optimization to enhance post-crash care accessibility. Post-crash care plays a vital role in saving lives and is a key focus of the Safe System Approach embraced by the United States Department of Transportation (DOT) to prevent fatalities and severe injuries.

Language

• English

Project

• Status: Active
• Funding: $98,000.00
• Contract Numbers:

  69A3552348321

• Sponsor Organizations:

  Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology

  University Transportation Centers Program
  Department of Transportation
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Managing Organizations:

  Florida A&M University, Tallahassee

  404 Foote/Hilyer
  Tallahassee, FL  United States  32307
• Project Managers:

  Moses, Ren

• Performing Organizations:

  Cleveland State University

  Euclid Avenue at 24th Street
  Cleveland, Oh  United States  44115

  University of Washington Tacoma

  1900 Commerce Street
  Tacoma, Washington  United States 
• Principal Investigators:

  Kidando, Emmanuel

  Owusu-Danquah, J

  Kitali, Angela

• Start Date: 20241001
• Expected Completion Date: 20251230
• Actual Completion Date: 0
• USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers Program

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Accessibility; Aged; Crash injuries; Emergency medical services; Rural transportation; Transportation equity
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01945631
• Record Type: Research project
• Source Agency: Rural Equitable and Accessible Transportation Center
• Contract Numbers: 69A3552348321
• Files: UTC, RIP
• Created Date: Feb 12 2025 5:16PM