Bus accident severity and passenger injury: evidence from Denmark

Abstract

Purpose Bus safety is a concern not only in developing countries, but also in the U.S. and Europe. In Denmark, disentangling risk factors that are positively or negatively related to bus accident severity and injury occurrence to bus passengers can contribute to promote safety as an essential principle of sustainable transit and advance the vision "every accident is one too many". Methods Bus accident data were retrieved from the national accident database for the period 2002-2011. A generalized ordered logit model allows analyzing bus accident severity and a logistic regression enables examining occurrence of injury to bus passengers. Results Bus accident severity is positively related to (i) the involvement of vulnerable road users, (ii) high speed limits, (iii) night hours, (iv) elderly drivers of the third party involved, and (v) bus drivers and other drivers crossing in yellow or red light. Occurrence of injury to bus passengers is positively related to (i) the involvement of heavy vehicles, (ii) crossing intersections in yellow or red light, (iii) open areas, (iv) high speed limits, and (v) slippery road surface. Conclusions The findings of the current study provide a comprehensive picture of the bus safety situation in Denmark and suggest the necessity of further research into bus drivers' attitudes and perceptions of risks and road users' perceptions of bus operations. Moreover, these findings suggest the need for further training into bus drivers' hazard recognition skills and infrastructural solutions to forgive possible driving errors.

Are Bus Company Regulations Associated with Crash Risk? Findings from a Retrospective Survey in Four Chinese Cities

“…Based on previous literature [6,7,8,9,10], we assessed four outcomes as proxies for bus crash risk: (a) passengers injured while riding the bus; (b) bus colliding with or scraping other motor vehicles; (c) bus colliding with non-motorized vehicles or pedestrians; and (d) bus damaging public facilities. Each outcome was assessed through drivers’ reports about occurrence in the past month prior to completing the survey.…”

“…Because buses often carry many passengers, risk can be amplified: a serious crash can have a magnified impact on morbidity and mortality. Buses also pose significant risk to other road users and to roadside facilities given their size and weight, which can inflict serious injury on pedestrians, cyclists, and other vulnerable road users who are struck, and can damage public transportation facilities [6,7,8,9,10].…”

Injury Severity of Bus–Pedestrian Crashes in South Korea Considering the Effects of Regional and Company Factors

“…Regarding the bus driver's behavior, speeding and signal violations were statistically significant and had positive coefficients. These illegal behaviors of bus drivers are more likely to increase the injury severity [25]. Higher speeds just before a crash were also associated with increasing the injury severity in pedestrian crashes.…”

“…In the vehicle and roadway environment, older vehicles have been found to be associated with more severe bus-pedestrian crashes [1]. Weekend and dry road factors are also associated with decreasing the injury severity of pedestrians in bus-pedestrian crashes [25,27].…”

Determinants of Bus Seat Belt Usage Behavior: A Qualitative Study

“…Reducing mortality rates due to bus accidents is among the road safety aims of many countries, including Denmark, India, Thailand, Nepal, Tanzania, and Zimbabwe (Pearce, Maunder, Mbara, Babu & Rwebangira, 2000;Prato & Kaplan, 2014;Nambulee, Jomnonkwao, Siridhara & Ratanavaraha, 2019). Bus safety is regulated in the U.S. by the Buses in Fatal Accidents database (BIFA), which contains records of all the medium and heavy buses that were involved in fatal traffic crashes in the 50 states.…”