Influence of road and environmental factors towards heavy-goods vehicle fatal crashes

Abstract

Heavy-goods vehicles (HGVs) remain a hazard to other road users due to their physical size and operation characteristics. Collisions with HGVs are more severe than other traffic crashes when the injury's severity is considered. Despite the high number of fatal crashes involving HGVs, limited studies on HGVs have been conducted. The aim of this study is to identify the significant factors contributing to fatal HGV-related crashes from the road and environmental factors. The research was conducted based on crash records in Malaysia for three consecutive years. Descriptive and chi-square test for the association was used to determine the influence of statistically significant variables between accident severity with road and environmental factors. The result shows that road geometry, shoulder type, lane marking, location type, road type, area type, control type, traffic system, speed limit, light condition, hour and state are a statistically significant factors of fatal HGV-crash. Road defect, road condition, quality of surface, road surface type, road surface condition, weather, month and day of the week were insignificant factors in fatal HGV-crash. The findings can be used to select significant factors to develop models using an advanced and sophisticated analysis technique considering heterogeneous conditions. This work may also serve as a preliminary step to establish efficient countermeasures to improve road design.