TY - JOUR
T1 - Exploring factors contributing to crash injury severity on rural two-lane highways
AU - Ma, Zhuanglin
AU - Zhao, Wenjing
AU - Chien, Steven I.Jy
AU - Dong, Chunjiao
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Elsevier Ltd and National Safety Council.
PY - 2015/12/1
Y1 - 2015/12/1
N2 - Objective Crash injury results from complex interaction among factors related to at-fault driver's behavior, vehicle characteristics, and road conditions. Identifying the significance of these factors which affect crash injury severity is critical for improving traffic safety. A method was developed to explore the relationship based on crash data collected on rural two-lane highways in China. Methods There were 673 crash records collected on rural two-lane highways in China. A partial proportional odds model was developed to examine factors influencing crash injury severity owing to its high ability to accommodate the ordered response nature of injury severity. An elasticity analysis was conducted to quantify the marginal effects of each contributing factor. Results The results show that nine explanatory variables, including at-fault driver's age, at-fault driver having a license or not, alcohol usage, speeding, pedestrian involved, type of area, weather condition, pavement type, and collision type, significantly affect injury severity. In addition to alcohol usage and pedestrian involved, others violate the proportional odds assumption. At-fault driver's age of 25-39 years, alcohol usage, speeding, pedestrian involved, pavement type of asphalt, and collision type of angle are found to be increased crash injury severity. Practical Applications The developed logit model has demonstrated itself efficient in identifying the effect of contributing factors on the crash injury severity.
AB - Objective Crash injury results from complex interaction among factors related to at-fault driver's behavior, vehicle characteristics, and road conditions. Identifying the significance of these factors which affect crash injury severity is critical for improving traffic safety. A method was developed to explore the relationship based on crash data collected on rural two-lane highways in China. Methods There were 673 crash records collected on rural two-lane highways in China. A partial proportional odds model was developed to examine factors influencing crash injury severity owing to its high ability to accommodate the ordered response nature of injury severity. An elasticity analysis was conducted to quantify the marginal effects of each contributing factor. Results The results show that nine explanatory variables, including at-fault driver's age, at-fault driver having a license or not, alcohol usage, speeding, pedestrian involved, type of area, weather condition, pavement type, and collision type, significantly affect injury severity. In addition to alcohol usage and pedestrian involved, others violate the proportional odds assumption. At-fault driver's age of 25-39 years, alcohol usage, speeding, pedestrian involved, pavement type of asphalt, and collision type of angle are found to be increased crash injury severity. Practical Applications The developed logit model has demonstrated itself efficient in identifying the effect of contributing factors on the crash injury severity.
KW - Crash injury severity
KW - Elasticity analysis
KW - Partial proportional odds model
KW - Rural two-lane highway
KW - Traffic safety
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U2 - 10.1016/j.jsr.2015.09.003
DO - 10.1016/j.jsr.2015.09.003
M3 - Article
C2 - 26683560
AN - SCOPUS:84946897610
SN - 0022-4375
VL - 55
SP - 171
EP - 176
JO - Journal of Safety Research
JF - Journal of Safety Research
ER -