A DESCRIPTION OF CASUALTY ACCIDENTS ON AUSTRALIAN RURAL HIGHWAYS

The paper uses the mass accident data kept by State Authorities to provide a description of casualty accidents on rural highways. The data used was from six States; Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia, Tasmania, Western Australia and Queensland. The accidents are described in terms of their type, severity, time and location. A table combining the data from the States is provided but this should be treated with caution because of the different procedures and definitions used in the different States. The paper concluded that over half of casualty accidents on rural highways were single vehicle accidents and that this proportion increased at night. Trucks were under-represented in single vehicle accidents. About 11% of rural, casualty accidents resulted in a fatality. High severity levels were associated with accidents involving vehicle travelling in opposite directions and accidents involving trucks. The predominant accident location was mid-block overtaking manoeuvres were involved in about 10% of rural, casualty accidents and trucks were over-represented in overtaking accidents.

• Corporate Authors:

  ARRB

  Melbourne, Victoria  Australia 
• Authors:
  • ARMOUR, M
• Publication Date: 1984-7

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: 24 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash severity; Crash types; Fatalities; Injuries; Location; Rural highways; Single vehicle crashes; Time; Traffic crashes
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00450133
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: AIR 1120-3, HS-038 381
• Files: HSL, TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
• Created Date: Nov 30 1985 12:00AM