Investigation of Truck-Involved Angle Crashes Based on GES and FARS Crash Databases

Abstract

Truck-car angle collisions have a higher crash frequency than other truck-involved collision types and tend to increase injury severity. This paper investigates both general and fatal truck-involved angle collisions using two national crash databases (2000)(2001)(2002)(2003)(2004), General estimates system (GES) and Fatality Analysis Reporting system (FARS). In this study, two-vehicle angle collisions were classified into three groups based on fault roles of truck or car drivers in the accidents, including Truck-Car, Car-Truck, and Car-Car crashes. The occurrence conditions of the three angle crash types were compared to each other to identify the potential risk factors such as driver characteristics, road environments, and highway designs related to the truck-involved crashes. The multinomial logistic regression is used for the statistical analysis. Based on the result analysis of this study, it is suggested that truck-involved angle collisions should be considered as an important scenario design for retraining or education programs for the purposes of reducing older drivers' fatality rate; improving either the conspicuity of truck trailers or lighting design of the highway would reduce the frequency and severity of truck-involved angle crashes; to improve incompatibilities between truck, car, and highway design, further studies should conduct in-depth analyses of geometric factors related to driver performances and behaviors in the car-truck conflicts at intersections.

A Conceptual Analysis of Cognitive Distraction for Transit Bus Drivers

“…Cognitive distractions exist. For example, research has shown that older drivers tend to have more vehicle accidents when entering intersections [26]. In this study, passengers, passengers talking with driver, and passengers using mobile phone devices were the most prevalent reported cognitive distractions.…”

“…In a study of truckinvolved rear-end crash. Yan et al [26] found younger car or truck drivers (<25 years) are less likely to get involved in a truck crashes compared to middle age drivers (26-55 years), but older drivers (>56 years), are more likely to be involved in a crash as compared to a middle age driver. A t-test was conducted to determine if the differences in age, experience, and driving hours were significantly different for the Location or Gender.…”

Red-Light-Running Crashes’ Classification, Comparison, and Risk Analysis Based on General Estimates System (GES) Crash Database

“…Due to a complex vehicle structure and operation requirement, heavy vehicle drivers normally need longer stop distances and more space to perform a turn, which might motivate the driver to pass through the intersection rather than stop. In addition, the longer time and increased effort required by the heavy vehicles to accelerate after stopping for a red light might also lead to the heavy vehicle driver’s RLR behavior [ 44 , 45 ].…”