Examination of Horizontal Curve Collision Characteristics and Corresponding Countermeasures

Horizontal curves are relatively dangerous portions of the roadway network. Agencies optimizing the use of their safety funds on curves should have an idea of the characteristics of the collisions that occur on those segments. However, few previous published papers had attempted to characterize the crashes on horizontal curves. This paper describes an effort that characterized crashes reported to be on curves in North Carolina using the Highway Safety Information System. The research compared crashes on two-lane road curves to crashes on all two-lane roads and to crashes on all roads. Since North Carolina has wide varieties of terrain, climate, and development, the findings should be generally representative of the US. The analysis revealed that over-represented two-lane curve crash types included: • Crashes on grades;Rural;Severe injury or fatal; Fixed object (particularly tree, ditch, and embankment); Overturn; Off peak hours (particularly during darkness on unlighted roads); Weekend; Holiday periods; and Wet, icy or snowy pavement. In addition, the analysis showed that there were few short roadway segments (of 0.1- to 1-mile length) with more than 10 reported curve crashes in 3 years. The paper provides a summary of recommendations from the national literature to treat the over-represented crash types. Based on the findings, agencies should target countermeasures for the most common and over-represented crash types. Agencies should also analyze longer segments to provide curvy segments with concentrations of crashes a chance to compete for funding with other types of segments.

• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  500 Fifth Street, NW
  Washington, DC  United States  20001
• Authors:
  • Hummer, Joseph E
  • Rasdorf, William J
  • Findley, Daniel Jonathan
  • Zegeer, Charles V
  • Sundstrom, Carl Andrew
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 89th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2010-1-10 to 2010-1-14
• Date: 2010

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: DVD
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 17p
• Monograph Title: TRB 89th Annual Meeting Compendium of Papers DVD

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Highway curves; Highway safety; Injury severity; Roadside hazards; Rural areas; Time of crashes; Traffic crashes; Two lane highways
• Uncontrolled Terms: Road conditions; Transportation infrastructure
• Geographic Terms: North Carolina
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01153413
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: 10-1009
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Mar 31 2010 7:45AM