Invited Student Paper – Impacts of COVID-19 Pandemic on Traffic Crashes in Florida

The novel COVID-19 pandemic outbreak has brought significant impacts on all aspects of peoples’ lives in the entire world. While this pandemic is still unfolding, it has already had unprecedented health, social, and economic consequences. The virus being easily transmittable from person-to-person, social distancing through stay-at-home orders is considered as effective in containing the rapid spread of the disease. For example, in Florida the stay-at-home orders came into effect on April 01, 2020. These strategies have resulted in drastic changes in the traffic pattern and travel behavior which in turn has led to significant changes in traffic safety. This study investigated the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on traffic crashes. Traffic crashes for March and April (2018-2020) in Florida were analyzed to identify if there was a significant change in traffic crashes following the outbreak of the pandemic and statewide directives to prohibit person-to-person interaction. Compared to similar days in 2018 and 2019, the overall statewide traffic crashes dropped significantly by 10% and 45% in the first and last two weeks of March 2020 respectively, and by 58% in April 2020. A similar significant decrease was observed in the fatal and injury crashes although as a percentage of all crashes they increased in 2020 compared to 2018 and 2019. Also, a decrease in the rear-end crashes and an increase in the run-off-road and non-motorist crashes were observed. This study helps to understand the early impacts of the pandemic and may be useful in operational and strategic planning for future pandemics.

• Record URL:
  https://annualmeeting.mytrb.org/OnlineProgram/Details/15681
• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ACS10 Standing Committee on Transportation Safety Management Systems.
• Corporate Authors:

  Transportation Research Board

  ,    
• Authors:
  • Romeo-Garcia, Amy
  • Kodi, John
  • Kitali, Angela E
  • Alluri, Priyanka
  • Gan, Albert
• Conference:
  • Transportation Research Board 100th Annual Meeting
  • Location: Washington DC, United States
  • Date: 2021-1-5 to 2021-1-29
• Date: 2021

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Digital/other
• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 14p

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: COVID-19; Crash characteristics; Crashes; Traffic characteristics; Travel behavior
• Geographic Terms: Florida
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01764148
• Record Type: Publication
• Report/Paper Numbers: TRBAM-21-01852
• Files: TRIS, TRB, ATRI
• Created Date: Feb 4 2021 11:00AM