MAGNITUDE AND SEVERITY OF DRAINAGE-STRUCTURE-RELATED HIGHWAY ACCIDENTS (ABRIDGMENT)

The Federal Highway Administration sponsored a study to determine the nature and magnitude of accidents related to roadside drainage structures. Accident data from national and state databases for the years 1981-1984 were analyzed with respect to their relationship to drainage structures. The findings revealed that drainage structures were involved in approximately 9 percent of all accidents on Federal-aid roads and were the first object struck in approximately 4.5 percent of all accidents. A high incidence of fatalities and serious injuries were associated with these accidents. Most of the accidents involved a single vehicle that struck a curb, ditch, embankment, or culvert. Drainage-structure-related accidents predominantly involved a single vehicle and occurred in a higher proportion at night and in adverse weather compared to the same characteristics for all accidents. Based on the findings related to roadway characteristics, drainage-structure accidents were over-represented on Federal-aid secondary roads, at non-junctions, in curves and on grades, and on wet surfaces. This paper contains a brief summary of the study results. A complete documentation of the methodology and findings may be found in FHWA Report DTFH61-85-C-00065.

• Record URL:
  http://onlinepubs.trb.org/Onlinepubs/trr/1988/1195/1195-007.pdf
• Record URL:
  https://scholar.google.com/scholar_lookup?title=MAGNITUDE+AND+SEVERITY+OF+DRAINAGE-STRUCTURE-RELATED+HIGHWAY+ACCIDENTS+(ABRIDGMENT)&author=H.+Robertson&publication_year=1988
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• Supplemental Notes:
  • This paper appears in Transportation Research Record No. 1195, Geometric Design and Operational Effects. Distribution, posting, or copying of this PDF is strictly prohibited without written permission of the Transportation Research Board of the National Academy of Sciences. Unless otherwise indicated, all materials in this PDF are copyrighted by the National Academy of Sciences. Copyright © National Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved
• Authors:
  • Robertson, H Douglas
• Publication Date: 1988

Media Info

• Features: References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 75-78
• Monograph Title: Geometric design and operational effects
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Record
  • Issue Number: 1195
  • Publisher: Transportation Research Board
  • ISSN: 0361-1981

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crashes; Culverts; Curbs; Data analysis; Ditches; Drainage structures; Embankments; Fatalities; Federal aid highways; Injuries; Mathematical analysis; Night; Pavements; Secondary roads; Single vehicle crashes; Weather; Wet weather
• Uncontrolled Terms: Wet pavements
• Subject Areas: Bridges and other structures; Design; Highways; Pavements; Safety and Human Factors; I82: Accidents and Transport Infrastructure;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00489691
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0309047609
• Files: TRIS, TRB
• Created Date: Nov 30 1989 12:00AM