J. Paul Leigh and Dr. Estella M. Geraghty of University of California, Davis, said a 20 percent increase in gasoline prices may be associated with nearly 2,600 fewer deaths nationally from motor vehicle crashes and air pollution.

The researchers developed a simulation model exploring the likely effects of an increase in gasoline prices on two specific causes of death -- motor vehicle crashes, including pedestrian and bicyclist deaths, and deaths related to air pollution. The model assumed that an increase in gas prices would lead to reduced demand, but used actual values for gas prices and deaths for 2003.

The study, published in the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, said the model's findings were backed up by historical data from the 1970s and 1980s, when increases in the price of gasoline were accompanied by significant reductions in motor vehicle fatalities.