Estimating Factors Contributing to Frequency and Severity of Large Truck–Involved Crashes

Understanding the factors that contribute to crash frequency and severity will assist better highway design and develop appropriate countermeasures for hot spots, thereby improving the safety of the road system. This study explores the influences of risk factors on frequency and severity of large truck–involved crashes. Multinomal logit (MNL) and negative binomial (NB) models are proposed to analyze crash severity and frequency, respectively. The explanatory factors include characteristics of the vehicles, drivers, traffic, environment, and roadway geometric design features. To obtain better parameter estimation results, the maximum likelihood (ML) method and Bayesian method are employed. The results show that the MNL and NB models have a better goodness of fit under the Bayesian estimation framework. Using Bayesian MNL and NB models, factors that significantly affect crash frequency and severity outcomes are analyzed. Some critical factors that contribute significantly to both crash severity and frequency estimation of large truck–involved crashes, including truck percentage, annual average daily traffic (AADT), driver condition, and weather condition, are identified and discussed. Driver age, speed limit, and location type are found to have significant effects only on the frequency of large truck–involved crashes. Seat belt usage, light condition, and terrain type are found to have significant effects only on the severity of large truck involved crashes. The results from this study will be valuable in transportation policy making, improvement of carrier operation, and crash-cost reduction.

• Record URL:
  https://doi.org/10.1061/JTEPBS.0000060
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/24732907
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © 2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
• Authors:
  • Dong, Chunjiao
  • Dong, Qiao
  • Huang, Baoshan
  • Hu, Wei
  • Nambisan, Shashi S
• Publication Date: 2017-8

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: References;
• Pagination: 04017032
• Serial:
  • Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
  • Volume: 143
  • Issue Number: 8
  • Publisher: American Society of Civil Engineers
  • ISSN: 2473-2907
  • EISSN: 2473-2893
  • Serial URL: http://ascelibrary.org/journal/jtepbs

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Annual average daily traffic; Countermeasures; Crash causes; Crash severity; High risk locations; Multinomial logits; Traffic safety; Truck crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Motor Carriers; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01631617
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS, ASCE
• Created Date: Mar 31 2017 12:08PM