STATISTICAL ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENT DATA AS A BASIS FOR PLANNING SELECTIVE ENFORCEMENT

QUALITY CONTROL TECHNIQUES WERE APPLIED TO THE ANALYSIS OF TRAFFIC ACCIDENT INFORMATION. THE UNDERLYING THEORY OF CONTROL CHARTS FOR ACCIDENT DATA IS PRESENTED. SEVERAL NEW THEORETICAL CONCLUSIONS RELATING TO THE STATISTICAL SENSITIVITY OF ACCIDENT CONTROL CHARTS WERE FORMULATED. THESE SAME CONTROL TECHNIQUES WERE ALSO ADAPTED TO OPERATIONAL DECISION-MAKING PROCESSES. A GENERALIZED SYSTEM OF CONTROL CHART COMPUTER PROGRAMS, DESIGNED TO REDUCE THE REPORTED STATISTICAL TECHNIQUES TO OPERATIONAL PRACTICE, WAS DEVELOPED AND SUBSEQUENTLY APPLIED TO A SAMPLE OF ACCIDENT DATA. RESULTS SUGGEST THAT FOR MANY ACCIDENT DATA USES, A HIGH ALPHA-ERROR PROBABILITY SHOULD BE TOLERATED IN ORDER TO REALIZE A LOW BETA-ERROR PROBABILITY CONCOMITANT WITH OPERATIONALLY DEFINED LENGTHS OF ROADWAY, REALISTIC CONTROL CHART TIME PERIODS, AND REASONABLE SENSITIVITY TO CHANGES IN ACCIDENT PRODUCING POTENTIAL. SUCH CONTROL CHARTS WOULD RARELY FAIL TO DETECT A SMALL CHANGE IN ACCIDENT POTENTIAL AT THE COST OF HAVING MANY OF THESE CHANGE INDICATIONS BE SPURIOUS. THE PRINCIPLE IS THAT FOR MANY ACCIDENT DATA APPLICATIONS, IT IS APPROPRIATE TO TOLERATE MANY FALSE INDICATIONS OF CHANGE IN ORDER TO REDUCE THE LIKELIHOOD OF FAILING TO DETECT A REAL CHANGE.

• Record URL:
  • http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/hrr/1967/188/188-004.pdf
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Paper sponsored by Committee on Highway Safety and presented at the 46th Annual Meeting. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Brenner, Robert
  • Fisher, Gary R
  • Mosher Jr, Walter W
• Publication Date: 1967

Media Info

• Media Type: Print
• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: pp 44-71
• Monograph Title: Traffic accident research
• Serial:
  • Highway Research Record
  • Issue Number: 188
  • Publisher: Highway Research Board

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Computer programs; Decision making; Operations; Quality control; Statistical analysis; Traffic control; Traffic crashes
• Uncontrolled Terms: Data
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Data and Information Technology; Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00219877
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-000 708
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 26 1994 12:00AM