Influence of Pavement Condition on Crash-Injury Severity

An analysis of vehicle crash data determined that a significant number of severe crashes occur on the curves of two-lane roads. Most of these crashes have at least some level of injury due to the nature of the collisions. Hence, crash severity modeling on horizontal curves was applied towards reducing the severity of these accidents. Crash severity is dependent upon several factors including driver behavior, traffic conditions, travel speed, road geometry, vehicle characteristics and pavement condition. The paper discusses a study that aims to identify the relationship between pavement condition indices and crash-level injury severity. The study highlights the benefit of linking different databases for safety maintenance of roadways. The analysis dataset used is a coalition of a crash database and Pavement Management Information System (PMIS) network level condition assessments, both maintained by the Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT). An ordered probit injury severity model is developed using variables available in these databases. The study establishes the relationship between pavement condition indices and injury severity of crashes occurring on two-lane horizontal curves. The sensitivity of the pavement indices with respect to the probability of a crash becoming fatal was found to be low. A poor correlation is also apparent between pavement skid index and injury severity.

  • Supplemental Notes:
    • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee AFD10 Pavement Management Systems
  • Corporate Authors:

    Transportation Research Board

    500 Fifth Street, NW
    Washington, DC  United States  20001
  • Authors:
    • Buddhavarapu, Prasad
    • Smit, Andre
    • Prozzi, Jorge A
    • Aguiar-Moya, Jose Pablo
  • Conference:
  • Date: 2012

Language

  • English

Media Info

  • Media Type: Digital/other
  • Features: References; Tables;
  • Pagination: 12p
  • Monograph Title: TRB 91st Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

Filing Info

  • Accession Number: 01371353
  • Record Type: Publication
  • Report/Paper Numbers: 12-1285
  • Files: TRIS, TRB
  • Created Date: May 30 2012 3:01PM