Yale Physician-Professor to Discuss Risks for Young Adult Crash Injuries

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Federico E. Vaca, M.D., professor and vice chair for faculty affairs in the Yale School of Medicine’s department of emergency medicine, will speak on “The Complexity of Factors Influencing the Risk of Crash Injury in Adolescent and Young Adults” on Monday, Nov. 26 at 4 p.m. in 804-08 Campus Center.

The lecture is part of the Center for Research on Families’ (CRF) Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series. The program is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be provided.

Crashes are the leading cause of death for adolescents and young adults. While policy and engineering efforts have been successful in reducing the rates of fatal crashes, many factors (e.g., behavioral, developmental, social, cultural) contribute to the risk of crash injury. Prevention activities and programs need to thoughtfully consider the breath of factors that can contribute to crashes and crash injury disparities among groups of young drivers.

Vaca’s research has focused on the use of quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods approaches to understand developmental, behavioral and socioecological relationships associated with racial/ethnic disparities in alcohol use disorders and motor vehicle crash-related morbidity and mortality.

CRF is an endowed interdisciplinary research center in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences and College of Natural Sciences. The Tay Gavin Erickson Lecture Series brings internationally recognized speakers with expertise in family research to campus each year. The lecture series began in 1999 through an endowment established in memory of Tay Gavin Erickson.