DRIVER ATTRIBUTES AND REAR-END CRASH INVOLVEMENT PROPENSITY

Rear-end crashes are one of the frequently occurring types of crashes. It is becoming increasingly apparent that in order to develop effective rear-end crash countermeasures, it is important to understand the driving behavior and performance of a driver prior to a rear-end crash. The study compiled in this report is one of the attempts in this direction. The driver attributes age and sex were considered as two of several factors that might be contributing to crash involvement of drivers and possibly associated with the role that a driver would assume in a rear-end crash. Due to the random nature of rear-end crashes and unpredictability of age and sex of the driver who would be involved in such a crash, statistical treatment of the data was considered as the most reasonable means of drawing conclusions regarding the occurrence of these crashes and the involvement of drivers therein. Two databases, the General Estimates System (GES) and the Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS), compiled by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), were used for the statistical analysis that supports the results presented in this study. The frequency distributions based on driver's age and sex gave a fairly good idea about the crash involvement profile of drivers, thereby providing directions for further analysis. The statistic, Crash Involvement Propensity Index, proposed in this research, was used to compare the crash involvement propensity of drivers belonging to different age groups. This enabled identification of the age group that is likely to be most vulnerable to crashes. Narrowing the study to rear-end crashes, the contingency analysis was used to establish an association between driver's age and his/her role (striking/struck) as well as between driver's sex and his/her role in a rear-end crash. In fact, statistical evidence of a strong association between age of the driver and the type of rear-end crash (striking/struck) in which he/she is involved was provided. Similarly, it was statistically inferred that there is a strong association between sex of the young driver and his/her role in a rear-end crash. The joint, marginal, and conditional probability distributions brought out differences in the tendencies of drivers in assuming striking or struck role in rear-end crashes. The conclusions of this study can provide useful guidelines for future data collection and further studies aimed at developing crash countermeasures.

• Record URL:
  http://www-nrd.nhtsa.dot.gov/Pubs/809-540.PDF
• 
• Corporate Authors:

  Rainbow Technology Incorporated

  17106 Thatcher Court
  Olney, MD  United States  20832

  National Center for Statistics and Analysis

  1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
  Washington, DC  United States  20590
• Authors:
  • Singh, S
• Publication Date: 2003-3

Language

• English

Media Info

• Features: Appendices; Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: 25 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Age; Behavior; Distributions (Statistics); Drivers; Frequency distributions; Gender; Rear end crashes; Statistical analysis
• Identifier Terms: Fatality Analysis Reporting System; General Estimates System
• Subject Areas: Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; Society; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00943471
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-809 540,, NHTSA Technical Report
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Jun 24 2003 12:00AM