Mining the Characteristics of Secondary Crashes on Highways
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140, Issue 4
Abstract
The prevention of secondary crashes is a high priority task in traffic incident management. However, the limited knowledge regarding the nature of secondary crashes largely impeded the development of established countermeasures. The primary goal of this paper is to improve the literature’s understanding of secondary crashes. This goal is achieved in two steps: first, with an analysis framework that accurately identifies secondary crashes by integrating rich traffic-sensor data with statewide-crash data and, second, by carefully investigating the characteristics of these identified secondary crashes. To that end, secondary crashes within a 27-mile section of a major highway in New Jersey were mined using the developed analysis framework, and a thorough examination of their characteristics has been performed. Empirical findings on the frequency of secondary crashes, their spatio-temporal distributions, clearance time, crash type, severity, and major contributing factors have been highlighted. Taken together, these preliminary results could potentially help transportation agencies make more informed decisions on mitigating secondary crashes and improve their incident management operations. To complement the results, further in-depth investigations using more high-resolution sensor data and high-quality incident records are suggested.
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Acknowledgments
The authors wish to thank the New Jersey Turnpike Authority for providing the traffic data. The contents of this paper reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and accuracy of the data presented herein. We greatly appreciate the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments and suggestions to improve this paper. The contents of this paper do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the agencies.
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Information & Authors
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering
Volume 140 • Issue 4 • April 2014
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jun 5, 2013
Accepted: Nov 7, 2013
Published online: Dec 26, 2013
Published in print: Apr 1, 2014
Discussion open until: May 26, 2014
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