Run-Off-Road crashes cause a large proportion of fatalities and serious injuries to the vehicle occupants. In this study, fatal crashes from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System for passenger vehicles (passenger cars and LTVs) during the period 1991 to 2007 wre used to identify the roadway- (e.g., rural/urban nature and curve existence), driver- (e.g., age, gender, drowsy, and alcohol use), environmental- (e.g., weather, lighting condition), and vehicle-related factors (e.g., speeding) associated with the fatal single vehicle run-off-road crashes.
Run-off-road (ROR) crashes, which usually involve only a single vehicle, contribute to a large portion of fatalities and serious injuries to motor vehicle occupants. In this study, the National Motor Vehicle Crash Causation Survey (NMVCCS) data collected at crash scenes between 2005 and 2007 is used to identify the ROR critical pre-crash event, assess the critical reason for the ROR critical event, and examine associated factors present in the pre-crash phase of the ROR crash. The effect of antilock brake system (ABS) and electronic stability control (ESC) on ROR crashes is also evaluated.
A run-off-road (ROR) crash or a roadway departure crash is a non-intersection crash which occurs after a vehicle crosses an edge line or a center line (i.e., leaves its designated traveled way and in the process the vehicle collides with a non-traversable obstacle or another vehicle travelling in the opposite direction or hits a pedestrian, or the vehicle overturns. The main objective of this thesis study was to determine the factors that contribute significantly to the levels of injury severity when ROR crashes occur. This study used a 5-year crash data for years 2008 - 2012 obtained from the Ohio Department of Public Safety. The decision tree model in conjunction with generalized ordered logit model was used to investigate characteristics of injury and fatality of run-off-road crashes in Ohio. The decision tree modeling was used for exploratory data analysis identified eight factors that explain a large amount of the variation in the response variable, injury severity. These important predictors for injury severity include road condition, run-off-road (ROR) crash types, posted speed limit, vehicle type, gender, alcohol-related, road contour, and drug-related. Also, complex interactions between parameters were identified. The results from the generalized ordered logit regression show that the following are significant factors in increasing the likelihood of ROR injury severity levels: alcohol and drugs use, curves and grades, female victims, overturn/rollover crashes, ROR crashes on dry roadway surfaces. Additionally, buses, truck, and emergency vehicles, and ROR crashes on roadways with posted speed limits of 40 mph or higher increase the probability of injury severity.
Every day thousands of people are killed and injured on our roads. Millions of people each year will spend long weeks in the hospital after severe crashes and many will never be able to live, work or play as they used to do. Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering. This report presents a comprehensive overview of what is known about the magnitude, risk factors and impact of road traffic injuries, and about ways to prevent and lessen the impact of road crashes. Over 100 experts, from all continents and different sectors -- including transport, engineering, health, police, education and civil society -- have worked to produce the report. Charts and tables.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 500, Vol. 21: Guidance for Implementation of the AASHTO Strategic Highway Safety Plan: Safety Data and Analysis in Developing Emphasis Area Plans provides guidance on data sources and analysis techniques that may be employed to assist agencies in allocating safety funds.
This report examines the roadway, crash, vehicle, individual and environmental factors that are associated with fatal and serious injury crashes in North Carolina between 1993 and 1997. The initial analysis identifies road classifications, geographic characteristics, and time trends related to severe crashes using Highway Safety Information Systems (HSIS) segment and crash data. HSIS system highways in North Carolina included the state primary and major secondary routes. Non-HSIS roads include local streets and minor secondary streets. Both HSIS and non-HSIS data are used in the more detailed section of the study to analyze the severe crash factors on all HSIS highways, two-lane urban HSIS highways, two-lane rural HSIS highways, urban non-HSIS routes and rural non-HSIS routes. In this report, a test of the standard error of a binomial proportion is used to find the statistical significance of the roadway, crash, vehicle, individual and environmental factors related to severe crashes. The initial analysis shows that urban and rural two-lane roads are associated with the highest crash severity, mountain counties have the highest proportion of severe crashes and crash severity remained stable for some of the most severe crash types. Factors associated with significantly high crash severity on all roadway types include curve, run-off-road, utility pole, tree, head-on, pedestrian, bicycle, darkness and alcohol use. The final section of the report recommends countermeasures that can be used to reduce the incidence of fatal and serious injury crashes associated with these factors.
TRB's National Cooperative Highway Research Program (NCHRP) Report 665: Identification of Vehicular Impact Conditions Associated with Serious Ran-off-Road Crashes quantifies the characteristics of ran-off-road crashes and identifies appropriate impact conditions for use in full-scale crash testing.
