Exploring Factors Contributing to Crash Severity of Motorcycles at Suburban Roads

Recently, severity of motorcycle crashes has been considered by different researchers. One of the main reasons of such considerations is greater vulnerability of these users as compared to other vehicle drivers. In recent years, the number of fatalities caused by motorcycle crashes, particularly in suburban roads, has become a concerning issue in Iran since motorcyclists accounted for 24 percent of all traffic-related deaths in Iran in 2011. This study is the first research in Iran in which the factors associated with crash severity are identified. In this paper the crash data from police-reported motorcycle crashes in suburban roads of Iran during 2009 and 2010 is used to estimate ordered logit model to identify the factors affecting severity of suburban motorcycle crashes. In order to better understand the effect of variables on crash severity, the value of pseudo-elasticity has also been calculated for all the variables in the model. Results mainly show that factors such as occurring the crash at weekends, during winter and fall, during the dawn, in foggy and clear weather, in non-administrative areas, rider age above 60, rider without proper license, lack of helmet, motorcycle at-fault, speeding and overtaking as well as collision with bus, heavy vehicle, pedestrian and single vehicle crashes increase the crash severity of motorcyclist. Besides, head on crashes, fatigue and sleepiness, inexcusable haste, violating the rules, road imperfection and curved level roads cause increased in motorcycles crash severity. Finally, as a result of this research, several policy recommendations are presented for improving motorcycles safety at suburban roads.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANF30 Motorcycles and Mopeds. Alternate title: Exploring Factors Contributing to Crash Severity of Motorcycles on Suburban Roads.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Ariannezhad, Amin
  • Razi-Ardakani, Hesamoddin
  • Kermanshah, Mohammad
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 93rd Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC
  • Date: 2014-1-12 to 2014-1-16
• Date: 2014

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 21p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Crash severity; Injury severity; Logits; Motorcycle crashes; Suburbs
• Geographic Terms: Iran
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I81: Accident Statistics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519487
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-5722
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 25 2014 2:25PM