Abstract
Crashes that occur on curved roadways are often more severe than straight road accidents. Previously, most studies focused on the associations between curved sections and roadway geometric characteristics. In this study, significant factors such as driver behavior, roadway features, vehicle factors, and environmental characteristics are identified and involved in analyzing traffic accident severity. Bayesian network analysis was conducted to deal with data, to explore the associations between variables, and to make predictions using these relationships. The results indicated that factors including point of impact, site of location, accident side of road, alcohol/drugs condition, etc., are relatively critical in crashes on horizontal curves. Accident severity increases when crashes occur on bridges. The sensitivity of accident severity to vehicle use, traffic control, point of impact, and alcohol/drugs condition is relatively high. Moreover, a combination of negative factors will aggravate accident severities. The results also proposed some suggestions regarding the design of vehicles, as well as the construction and improvement of curved roadways.
Highlights
Traffic crashes cause property loss, casualties, and have a high financial cost every year
Accident severity increases when crashes occur on bridges
(1) Factors including POI, site of location, accident side of road, lighting conditions, vehicle use, and traffic control are relatively important in crashes on curves
Summary
Traffic crashes cause property loss, casualties, and have a high financial cost every year. Reducing accident rates and injury severities has long been a major attention for highway departments [1]. Crashes on curves lead to more severe injuries owing to the complicated linear roadway conditions, unstable traffic speed, and dangerous driving conditions on curved sections. Constructed road curves and relevant infrastructures would cause an extremely high accident rate and severe accident severities on curves [2]. In the latter half of 2007, 1392 fatalities occurred as a result of traffic crashes in Florida. An in-depth study on determining the influencing factors that can largely affect the accident severity on curves is highly necessary. After grasping the critical factors, corresponding countermeasures in terms of the construction on curves, vehicle design, policy-making, etc. can be proposed in the future
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
