Abstract
Mountainous freeways always suffer from accidents due to special terrain, weather conditions, driving environment, and so on. Based on the records of 898 accidents that occurred on mountainous freeways in Chongqing during the past 6 years, the partial proportional odds model is used to identify the factors affecting the accident severity. The time of the accident, season, involvement of trucks, accident characteristics, speeding, maximum driving experience of involved drivers, and weather and road conditions are found to be important for the levels of accident severity. Zero to 6 a.m. and 19 to 24 p.m. are the times prone to serious traffic accidents. The probability of serious traffic accidents in summer and autumn is greater than that in spring and winter. Once a truck is involved in an accident, the consequence is often more severe. Turnover and speeding will result in a grave accident. When there is an experienced driver, the probability of serious traffic accidents is low. The fog is extremely unfavorable weather conditions. The probability of serious accident happening in the downgrade, ramp, curve, bridge, and tunnel sections is greater than the others. The results aim to provide valuable reference for traffic safety on mountainous freeways.
Highlights
In China, mountainous freeways are subjected to high frequency of traffic accidents and have larger probability of a serious crash
There is information related to the crash severity in the collected data of traffic accidents
It is found that eight explanatory variables, including time, season, trucks involved, accident form, speeding, maximum driving experience of at-fault driver, weather, and section form, show significant impact on crash severity on mountainous freeways
Summary
In China, mountainous freeways are subjected to high frequency of traffic accidents and have larger probability of a serious crash. This is partly due to the road alignment which has a small curve radius and large longitudinal slope. Chongqing is located in the southwest of China and has a typical mountainous terrain. It is cold in winter and extremely hot in summer. The traffic management staff often use two kinds of ways to record the traffic accident severity, namely, the property damage and the personnel casualty method. In order to mitigate the hazards of serious accidents, it is necessary to study the effect of drivers, vehicles, roads, and weather on the severity of traffic accidents
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