Contributing Factors to Run-Off-Road Crashes Involving Large Trucks under Lighted and Dark Conditions
Publication: Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144, Issue 1
Abstract
Previous studies have examined the relationships between run-off-road (ROR) crashes and the contributing factors; however, the impact of lighting conditions has been insufficiently addressed. As a result, the objective of this study was to research the effect of lighting conditions on the injury severity of ROR crashes that involve large trucks. Based on the crash data pertaining to large trucks in the state of Oregon from 2007 to 2013, two separate mixed logit models were developed to capture the contributing factors that affect injury severity in each lighting condition. The levels of injury severity sustained by truck drivers were categorized into three main categories: severe injury (fatal and incapacitating), minor injury (nonincapacitating and possible injury), and no injury. The mixed logit model was used to account for unobserved factors (i.e., unobserved heterogeneity). Estimation results indicated that there are significant differences between dark and lighted conditions, that the level of injury severity outcomes was highly influenced by several complex interactions between factors, and that the effects of some factors could vary across observations. The contributing factors include driver, traffic flow, roadway geometric features, land use, and time characteristics.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to acknowledge the Oregon Department of Transportation, specifically the Transportation Data Department, for providing the crash dataset and for helping in our understanding of the data. Findings of this study do not necessarily reflect the views of the Oregon Department of Transportation.
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Published In
Journal of Transportation Engineering, Part A: Systems
Volume 144 • Issue 1 • January 2018
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Mar 2, 2017
Accepted: Jul 6, 2017
Published online: Oct 28, 2017
Published in print: Jan 1, 2018
Discussion open until: Mar 28, 2018
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