ACCIDENT DATA ANALYSIS IN SUPPORT OF COLLISION AVOIDANCE TECHNOLOGIES. FINAL REPORT

This report summarizes the results of an effort to develop and rank collision scenarios. Review of existing literature showed that there has been relatively little work in this area. In exploring and building collision scenarios, police-reported accident files from Michigan and Washington were used, along with data from the National Accident Sampling System, and the Crash Avoidance Research Data file. The project focused on common accidents of ordinary drivers. Ultimately, the project was restricted to passenger car accidents which did not involve pedestrians or pedalcyclists, and drivers who had not been drinking or indicated to have been driving recklessly. An 18-level collision configuration variable was constructed which included the number of vehicles involved, their relative orientation, intent to turn, relation to intersection, and traffic control at the intersection. Distributions of this variable were determined for driver age, area type (urban or rural), road type, and light condition. The distributions were quite stable across the four data sets. Five collision types--single-vehicle, nonintersection; crossing paths at signalized intersection; crossing paths at non-signalized intersection; driveway/parking related; and same direction, non-intersection--accounted for about two-thirds of the accidents. A sample of Michigan police reports was drawn for each of the five collision types. Among other findings, these case studies suggested that in collisions at non-signalized intersections, older drivers often stopped and then pulled out in front of oncoming traffic, while younger drivers more often failed to stop at all. Overall, the case studies suggested that a collision typology based on vehicle movement might be most useful in developing crash avoidance technology.

• Corporate Authors:

  University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute

  2901 Baxter Road
  Ann Arbor, MI  United States  48109-2150
• Authors:
  • Campbell, K L
  • Wolfe, A C
  • Blower, D F
  • Waller, P F
  • Massie, D L
  • RIDELLA, S
• Publication Date: 1990-6

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; Tables;
• Pagination: 94 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Alternatives analysis; Case studies; Classification; Crash avoidance systems; Crashes; Data analysis; Drivers; Driveways; Forecasting; Guides to the literature; Highways; Intersections; Lighting; Literature reviews; Mathematical analysis; Multiple vehicle crashes; Parking; Rural areas; Signalized intersections; Single vehicle crashes; Urban areas
• Uncontrolled Terms: Driver age; Highway classification
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00620478
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: UMTRI-90-31, HS-041 104
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Mar 31 2000 12:00AM