CHARACTERISTICS AND SOLUTIONS RELATED TO BUS TRANSIT ACCIDENTS

Accidents involving buses are a serious highway safety problem, resulting in about 15,000 injuries in the U.S. each year. The objective of this study was to examine the characteristics of bus accidents and recommend countermeasures. Analyses were carried out on a primary study file of 8,897 commercial bus crashes in five states and other accident data. The most important results of these analyses are related to temporal factors, vehicle factors, driver factors, and accident types. For example, the overall number of crashes was highest in winter months, older buses were overrepresented in injury and fatal crashes compared to newer buses, neither bus driver age nor gender was related to accident involvement, and the most common bus accident types were rear-end with one vehicle stopped, sideswipe same-direction, and turning. Bus passenger injury data were also analyzed and revealed that one-third of all non-collision passenger injuries occurred during boarding and alighting and another one-fourth occurred during stopping.

Supplemental Notes:
- Supported by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation, University Transportation Centers Program.
Corporate Authors:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Highway Safety Research Center
Chapel Hill, NC United States 27599
Authors:
- Zegeer, C V
- Huang, H F
- Hummer, J V
- Stutts, J C
- Rodgman, E A
Publication Date: 1993-3

Language

English

Media Info

Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
Pagination: 77 p.

Subject/Index Terms

TRT Terms: Bus transit; Crash causes; Injuries; Passengers; Prevention; Safety
Old TRIS Terms: Passenger injuries
Subject Areas: Highways; Passenger Transportation; Public Transportation; Safety and Human Factors; Security and Emergencies; I81: Accident Statistics;

Filing Info

Accession Number: 00634144
Record Type: Publication
Source Agency: Federal Transit Administration
Files: TRIS, ATRI, USDOT
Created Date: Jun 29 1996 12:00AM