Special Report (Update): Impact of COVID19 Mitigation on Numbers and Costs of California Traffic Crashes

Using observations of reported traffic incidents in their real-time “California Highway Incident Processing System” (CHIPS), the Road Ecology Center found reduced numbers of crashes, including injury/fatal crashes, on state highways and rural roads that has resulted from Governor Newsom’s “shelter in place” order. The authors estimate that since the order went into effect, collisions and especially injury and fatality collisions have been reduced by half, from ~1,000 crashes and ~400 injury/fatal crashes per day to 500 and 200 per day, respectively. These reductions have resulted in a savings to the public of about $40 million/day, or $1 billion since the order went into effect. Simultaneous to the reduction in injury crashes, there were fewer people treated by Sacramento region hospitals and trauma centers for crash-related injuries. They found that traffic volumes were up to 55% lower on certain highways after the order compared to a similar period prior to the order, which may account for the reduced number of collisions. The authors also found that maximum and average traffic speeds increased slightly on certain highways, but only by a few mph. When Southern California experienced heavy, record-breaking rains in early April, there was a brief return to “normal” levels of crashes. The authors highlight collision and injury/fatality hotspots on California highways since the shelter in place order went into effect and for a similar period in 2019. All data were derived from California Highway Patrol incident reports. This report includes maps of incident hotspots, and discusses this unexpected benefit of the shelter in place order.

• Record URL:
  https://roadecology.ucdavis.edu/files/content/projects/COVID_CHIPs_Impacts.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://merritt.cdlib.org/api/presign-file/ark%253A%252F13030%252Fm5dg1zq9/1/producer%252FCOVID_CHIPs_Impacts_1.pdf
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  University of California, Davis

  Road Ecology Center
  Davis, CA  United States 
• Authors:
  • Shilling, Fraser
  • Waetjen, David
• Publication Date: 2020-4-15

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 11p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: COVID-19; Crash injuries; Crash rates; Traffic crashes; Traffic safety; Traffic speed; Traffic volume
• Geographic Terms: California
• Subject Areas: Highways; Operations and Traffic Management; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01738453
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: BTRIS, TRIS
• Created Date: Apr 28 2020 3:16PM