AN ANALYSIS OF THE CHARACTERISTICS AND CONGESTION IMPACTS OF TRUCK-INVOLVED FREEWAY ACCIDENTS. FINAL REPORT

This report is concerned with the characteristics and consequences of over 9,000 truck-involved freeway accidents and non-accident incidents in a three-county case study region in Southern California. The research was conducted in two major phases: (1) identification of the number and type of truck-involved accidents occurring on freeways in the region, together with statistical analyses of the influence of a wide range of conditions on the frequency and severity of these accidents; and (2) estimation of the impact of these accidents on the freeway system in terms of congestion and delay, and estimation of the total annual economic costs of these accidents. Chapter Two reports the results of statistical analyses of the salient characteristics of over 9,000 truck-involved freeway accidents that occurred in the region during 1983-84. Chapter Three focuses on the immediate consequences of these accidents: accident severity (i.e., injuries and fatalities), incident duration, and lane closure. Chapter Four is an analysis of 424 major incidents involving large trucks on freeways in the region during 1983-85. Chapter Five focuses on the impacts of truck-involved mainline collisions on freeway congestion and delay; simulation models are used to estimate total delay attributable to such collisions for the 1987-88 period. Chapter Six focuses on the total economic costs of these accidents. We conclude that over 10 million vehicle hours, and 154.6 million dollars, may be lost each year due to truck-involved freeway accidents in the region.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Irvine

  Institute of Transportation Studies
  4000 Anteater Instruction and Research Building
  Irvine, CA  United States  92697

  California Department of Transportation

  1120 N Street
  Sacramento, CA  United States  95814

  Federal Highway Administration

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Recker, W W
  • Golob, T F
  • Hsueh, C-W
  • Nohalty, P
• Publication Date: 1988-12

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 174 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Costs; Crash rates; Crash severity; Crashes; Fatalities; Freeways; Impacts; Injuries; Lane closure; Statistical analysis; Traffic congestion; Traffic crashes; Traffic delays; Traffic incidents; Traffic simulation; Trucks
• Uncontrolled Terms: Accident costs; Incidents
• Geographic Terms: California
• Old TRIS Terms: Freeway traffic accidents; Lane closing
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Finance; Highways; Motor Carriers; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors; I80: Accident Studies; I81: Accident Statistics;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00493595
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: FHWACAUCIITS-RR-88-2, F85T017
• Contract Numbers: RTA-13945-55D281
• Files: TRIS, USDOT, STATEDOT
• Created Date: Apr 30 1990 12:00AM