Statistical Characteristics of Wrong-Way Driving Crashes on Illinois Freeways

This study collected and analyzed the wrong-way crashes data for a six-year time period, from 3 2004 to 2009, on Illinois freeways. The objective of the study was to characterize the statistical characteristics of wrong-way crashes from these three aspects: crash, vehicle, and person. The temporal distributions, geographical distribution, roadway characteristics, and crash characteristics were analyzed for wrong-way crashes. The wrong-way driver demographic information, driver physical condition, and driver injury severity were analyzed for wrong-way drivers. The vehicle characteristics, vehicle operation, and collision results were analyzed for wrong-way driving vehicles. General statistical characteristics of wrong-way crashes were analyzed, and the findings revealed that a large proportion of wrong-way crashes occurred during the weekend from midnight to 5 a.m. Approximately 80 percent of wrong-way crashes were located in urban areas. Nearly 70 percent of wrong-way vehicles were passenger cars. Approximately 60% of wrong-way drivers were driving under the influence (DUI). Of those, nearly 50% were confirmed to be impaired by alcohol, about 5% were impaired by drugs, and more than 3% had been drinking. Wrong-way entry points were analyzed for different interchange types as well. Compressed diamond interchanges, SPUI, partial cloverleaf interchanges, and freeway feeders had the highest wrong-way crash rates (wrong-way crashes per 100 interchanges per year). The contribution of this study was a new method to predict the possible wrong-way entry points and rank the high-frequency crash locations for field reviews based on the number of recorded or estimated wrong-way freeway entries.

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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB25 Highway Safety Performance.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Zhou, Huaguo
  • Zhao, Jiguang
  • Fries, Ryan
  • Pour-Rouholamin, Mahdi
• 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: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p
• Monograph Title: TRB 93rd Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash characteristics; Crash data; Crash risk forecasting; Field studies; Freeways; High risk locations; Statistics; Traffic crashes; Wrong way driving
• Geographic Terms: Illinois
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I81: Accident Statistics; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01519559
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 14-4324
• Files: PRP, TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Mar 26 2014 10:07AM