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HighwaySafety&Accidents 15 16
HighwaySafetyandAccidents
Inthislecture;
1 ConceptsandStatistics.
2 ContributingCausesofCrashes.
3MethodsofSummarizingCrashData.
The information included in this lecture is largely taken from Garber and Hoel
(2009).
1 ConceptsandStatistics
AccordingtoGarberandHoel(2009),Accidentisanoccurrence involvingone
or more transportation vehicles in a collision that results in property damages,
injury, or death. The term accident implies a random event that occurs for no
apparent reason it just happened. The US National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration NHTSA has recently suggested replacing the word accident with
the word crash. That is since crash implies that the collision could have been
prevented or its effect minimized by modifying driver behavior, vehicle design,
roadwaygeometry,orthetravelingenvironment.
According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2013 (WHO, 2013), road
trafficinjuriesarethe8thleadingcauseofdeathglobally,andtheleadingcauseof
deathforyoungpeopleaged1529.About1.24millionpeopledieeachyearonthe
worlds roads, and the cost of dealing with the consequences of these road traffic
crashes runs to billions of dollars. Current trends suggest that by 2030 road traffic
deathswillbecomethe5thleadingcauseofdeathunlessurgentactionistaken.
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TrafficEng.HighwaySafety&Accidents 15 16
Figure01belowshowssomeofWHOsafetystatisticsregardingIraq(WHO,2103).
Figure01
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2 ContributingCausesofCrashes
Causesofcrashescanbecategorizedintofourgeneralseparatecategories:
2ADriver
Driver performance is the major contributing cause of many crashes. Driver error
canoccurinmanyways,suchasinattentiontotheroadwayandsurroundingtraffic,
failuretoyieldtherightofway,ortrafficlaws.Thesefailurescanoccurasaresult
of unfamiliarity with roadway conditions, traveling at high speeds, drowsiness,
drinking,andusingacellphoneorotherdistractionsduringdriving.
2BTheVehicleCondition
The mechanical condition of a vehicle can be the cause of transportation crashes.
Faulty brakes in heavy trucks, failure of the electrical system and worn tires are
typicalvehiclerelatedreasonsofaccidents.
2CTheRoadwayCondition
Theconditionandqualityoftheroadcanbeacrashcontributingfactor.Highways
and streets must be designed to provide adequate sight distance; proper amber
intervals should be determined when designing traffic signals; railroad grade
crossings must be designed to operate safely and also highway horizontal and
vertical curves should be efficiently designed to accommodate travelling vehicles
safely.
2DTheEnvironment
The physical and climatic environment surrounding a traffic vehicle can also be a
factorintheoccurrenceofcollisions.Weathercanbeacauseofaccidentswhenitis
foggy,rainyorwindy.Forinstance,wetpavementreducesstoppingfriction.Fogcan
preventdriversfromseeingothervehiclesaheadthatmayhavestoppedorslowed
down.
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Table1showsalistofprobablecausesfordifferenttypesofcrashes(Garber,2009).
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3 MethodsofSummarizingCrashData
A summary of crashes can be used to identify safety problems that may exist at a
particularsite (Garber,2009).It canalsobe usedtoidentifythe crashpatternat a
site from which possible causes may be identified, leading to the identification of
possibleremedialactions(countermeasures) .
Therearefivedifferentwaysinwhichacrashatasitecanbesummarized:
Type
Severity
Contributingcircumstances
Environmentalconditions
Timeperiods
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Summary by Severity. This method involves listing each crash occurring at a site
under one of three severity classes: fatal (F) , personal injury (PI), and
propertydamageonly(PDO) .Fatalcrashesarethosethatresultinat
least one death. Crashes that result in injuries, but no deaths, are classified as
personalinjury.Crashesthatresultinneitherdeathnorinjuriesbutinvolvedamage
topropertyareclassifiedaspropertydamageonly.
Summary by Contributing Circumstances . In this method, each crash
occurring at a site is listed under one of three contributing factors: (1) human
factors, (2) environmental factors, and (3) vehiclerelated factors. The necessary
informationisusuallyobtainedfromaccidentreports.
SummarybyEnvironmentalConditions.Thismethodcategorizescrashesbasedon
the environmental conditions that existed at the time of the crashes. Two main
categories of environmental conditions are (1) lighting condition (i.e., daylight ,
dusk , dawn , or dark ) and (2) roadway surface condition (i.e., dry, wet,
snowy/icy).Thismethodofsummarizing crashesfacilitates theidentification of
possible causes of crashes and safety deficiencies that may exist at a particular
location.
SummarybyTimePeriod.Thismethodcategorizesallcrashesunderdifferenttime
periods to identify whether crash rates are significantly higher during any specific
time periods. Three different time periods can be used: (1) hour, (2) day, and (3)
month.Thismethodofsummarizingdatahelptoidentifytimeperiodsduringwhich
crashoccurrencestakeplace.
Summarybyhighaccidentlocations.AccordingtoRoess(2004),amajorfunctionof
recording traffic data is to determine locations with high accidents or fatalities
(spots).Figure2showsatypicalexampleofanaccidentspotmap.
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Figure3belowshowsthesymbolsusuallyusedinacollisiondiagram(Roess,2004).
rd
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