Injury Severity and Total Harm in Truck-Involved Work Zone Crashes
Abstract
Society pays a high cost for work zone crashes in terms of operational disruptions, property damage, injuries, and loss of life. Given narrow lanes in work zones, large trucks are of particular concern. Truck-involved collisions in work zones, as opposed to non-truck-involved collisions in North Carolina, are empirically examined. This examination helps in understanding which work zone attributes are empirically associated with the most seriously injured occupant and total harm in a crash. Specifically, with a unique data set, effects of the following variables were explored: type of work zone, presence of warning signs and cones, type of activity in the work zone, location of the crash in the work zone, and construction impact of the work zone on the roadway. The results show that work zone crashes in North Carolina, especially those involving large trucks, were more injurious than were non—work zone crashes. Rigorous modeling results suggest that truck-involved multivehicle crashes were most injurious and harmful when (a) they occurred on two-way undivided or two-way divided but unprotected (without a median barrier) roadways; (b) the roadway was closed and a detour was required on the opposite side; (c) they occurred adjacent to the work area; and (d) the posted speed limits were higher. The results provide valuable information on high-risk factors in work zones.
Get full access to this article
View all access and purchase options for this article.
References
1. Kite S. SMART Work Zones: Technology for Work Zone Management. North Carolina Department of Transportation, Raleigh, 2003.
2. 2000 Work Zone Traffic Crash Facts. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, March 2002.
3. Elvik R. A Meta-Analysis of Value of Life Estimates for Occupational and Transport Safety. Institute of Transport Economics, Oslo, Norway, 1995.
4. Blincoe L. J. The Economic Costs of Motor Vehicle Crashes, 1994. NHTSA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1996.
5. de Blaeij A., Florax R. J. G. M., Rietveld P., and Verhoef E. The Value of Statistical Life in Road Safety: A Meta-Analysis. Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 35, No. 6, 2003, pp. 973–986.
6. Hargroves B., and Martin M. Vehicle Accidents in Highway Work Zones: Final Report. Report FHWA-RD-80-063. FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1980.
7. Stammer R. Highway Safety: At the Crossroads. In Proc., ASCE Specialty Conference, Highway Safety: At the Crossroads, San Antonio, Tex., 1988.
8. Wang J., Hughes W. E., Council F. M., and Paniati J. F. Investigation of Highway Work Zone Crashes: What We Know and What We Don't Know. In Transportation Research Record 1529, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1996, pp. 54–62.
9. Juergens W. R. Construction Zone, Detour and Temporary Connection Accidents. Business and Transportation Agency, California Division of Highways, Sacramento, 1972.
10. Liste F., Bernard R., and Melvin B. Evaluation of Timber Barricades and Precast Concrete Traffic Barriers for Use in Highway Construction Areas. Virginia Highway and Transportation Research Council, Charlottesville, 1976.
11. Graham J., Paulsen R., and Glennon J. Accident and Speed Studies in Construction Zones. Report FHWA-RD-77-80. FHWA, U.S. Department of Transportation, 1977.
12. Nemeth Z. A., and Migletz D. J. Accident Characteristics Before, During, and After Safety Upgrading Projects on Ohio's Rural Interstate System. In Transportation Research Record 672, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1978, pp. 19–24.
13. Rouphail N. M., Yang Z. S., and Fazio J. Comparative Study of Shortand Long-Term Urban Freeway Work Zones. In Transportation Research Record 1163, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1988, pp. 4–14.
14. Hall J. W., and Lorenz V. M. Characteristics of Construction-Zone Accidents. In Transportation Research Record 1230, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1989, pp. 20–27.
15. Garber N. J., and Woo T. H. Accident Characteristics at Construction and Maintenance Zones in Urban Areas. VTRC 90-R12. Virginia Transportation Research Council, Charlottesville, 1990.
16. Hargroves B. T. Vehicle Accidents in Highway Work Zones. Journal of Transportation Engineering, Vol. 107, No. TE5, 1981, pp. 525–539.
17. Nemeth Z. A., and Rathi A. Freeway Work Zone Accident Characteristics. Transportation Quarterly, Vol. 37, No. 1, 1983, pp. 145–159.
18. Ha T., and Nemeth Z. Detailed Study of Accident Experience in Construction and Maintenance Zones. In Transportation Research Record 1509, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1995, pp. 38–45.
19. Pigman J. G., and Agent K. R. Highway Accidents in Construction and Maintenance Work Zones. In Transportation Research Record 1270, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1990, pp. 12–21.
20. Standing Committee on Highway Traffic Safety. Summary Report on Work Zone Accidents. American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials, Washington, D.C., 1987.
21. Khattak A., Khattak A., and Council F. M. Effects of Work Zone Presence on Injury and Non-Injury Crashes. Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 34, No. 1, 2002, pp. 19–29.
22. Garber N. J., and Zhao M. Distribution and Characteristics of Crashes at Different Work Zone Locations in Virginia. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1794, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2002, pp. 19–25.
23. Daniel J., Dixon K., and Jared D. Analysis of Fatal Crashes in Georgia Work Zones. In Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board, No. 1715, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 2000, pp. 18–23.
24. Chambless J., Ghadiali A. M., Lindly J. K., and McFadden J. Multistate Work Zone Crash Characteristics. Institute of Transportation Engineers Journal, Vol. 72, No. 5, 2002, pp. 46–50.
25. O'Donnell C., and Connor D. Predicting the Severity of Motor Vehicle Accident Injuries Using Models of Ordered Multiple Choice. Accident Analysis and Prevention, Vol. 28, No. 6, 1996, pp. 739–753.
26. Duncan C. S., Khattak A. J., and Council F. M. Applying the Ordered Probit Model to Injury Severity in Truck—Passenger Car Rear-End Collisions. In Transportation Research Record 1635, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 1998, pp. 63–71.
27. Hagle T., and Mitchell G. Goodness of Fit Measures for Probit and Logit. American Journal of Political Science, Vol. 36, 1992, pp. 762–784.
28. Windmeijer F. A. G. Goodness-of-Fit Measures in Binary Choice Models. Econometric Reviews, Vol. 14, No. 1, 1995 pp. 101–116.
29. Miller T., and Spicer R. Children's Safety Network Economics and Insurance Resource Center. PIRE, Calverton, Md., 2001. Accessed Feb. 25, 2004. www.childrenssafetynetwork.org/about.asp
30. Kennedy P. E. Estimation with Correctly Interpreted Dummy Variables in Semilogarithmic Equations. The American Economic Review, Vol. 71, No. 4, 1981, p. 801.
Cite article
Cite article
Cite article
OR
Download to reference manager
If you have citation software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice
Information, rights and permissions
Information
Published In
Article first published: January 2004
Issue published: January 2004
Authors
Metrics and citations
Metrics
Journals metrics
This article was published in Transportation Research Record: Journal of the Transportation Research Board.
VIEW ALL JOURNAL METRICSArticle usage*
Total views and downloads: 172
*Article usage tracking started in December 2016
Altmetric
See the impact this article is making through the number of times it’s been read, and the Altmetric Score.
Learn more about the Altmetric Scores
Articles citing this one
Receive email alerts when this article is cited
Web of Science: 0
Crossref: 58
- Crash Contributing Factors and Patterns Associated with Fatal Truck-In...
- Examination of Crash Rates and Injury Severity Before, During, and Aft...
- Analysis Framework to Assess Crash Severity for Large Trucks on Rural ...
- Severity modeling of work zone crashes in New Jersey using machine lea...
- Analysis of Injury Severity of Work Zone Truck-Involved Crashes in Sou...
- Crash harm before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for spati...
- Modelling Road Work Zone Crashes’ Nature and Type of Person Involved U...
- Analysis of Temporal Stability of Contributing Factors to Truck-Involv...
- Injury Severity Analysis for Large Truck-Involved Crashes: Accounting ...
- An empirical analysis of driver injury severities in work-zone and non...
- Exploring factors associated with crash severity on motorways in Pakis...
- Analyzing injury severity of rear-end crashes involving large trucks u...
- Safety Impact of Connected Vehicles on Driver Behavior in Rural Work Z...
- An application of in-vehicle recording technologies to analyze injury ...
- Injury severity of truck-involved crashes in work zones on rural and u...
- Analysis of Fatal Truck-Involved Work Zone Crashes in Florida: Applica...
- Assessment of commercial truck driver injury severity based on truck c...
- Recursive Bivariate Probit Analysis of Injury Severity and Non-Truck I...
- Severity of emergency natural gas distribution pipeline incidents: App...
- Summary of crash-frequency and crash-severity models in highway safety
- Determination of the types of road accidents at roundabouts
- Enhancing Construction Truck Safety at Work Zones: A Microscopic Traff...
- The relationship between driving volatility in time to collision and c...
- Exploration of Hazardous Material Truck Crashes on Wyoming’s Interstat...
- Severity of Worker-Involved Work Zone Crashes: A Study of Contributing...
- Does time of day matter at highway work zone crashes?
- Comparing Factors Affecting Injury Severity of Passenger Car and Truck...
- A Random Parameters Ordered Probit Analysis of Injury Severity in Truc...
- Exploring factors contributing to injury severity at work zones consid...
- Injury Severity and Contributing Driver Actions in Passenger Vehicle–T...
- Identifying Fatality Risk Factors for the Commercial Vehicle Driver Po...
- Impacts of Work Zone Component Areas on Driver Injury Severity
- Investigating Factors Contributing to Injury Severity in Work Zone Rea...
- Identifying the Factors Contributing to Injury Severity in Work Zone R...
- Analysis of Work-Zone Crashes Using the Ordered Probit Model with Fact...
- Injury severity analysis of commercially-licensed drivers in single-ve...
- Injury severity analysis in taxi-pedestrian crashes: An application of...
- Analysis of passenger-car crash injury severity in different work zone...
- Contributory fault and level of personal injury to drivers involved in...
- Analysis of injury severity of large truck crashes in work zones
- Work zones versus nonwork zones: Risk factors leading to rear-end and ...
- Examining the factors affecting the severity of run-off-road crashes i...
- What Role Do Precrash Driver Actions Play in Work Zone Crashes?:Applic...
- Identifying Crash Patterns on Roundabouts
- Common hazards and their mitigating measures in work zones: A qualitat...
- Crash Patterns at Signalized Intersections
- Use of Structural Equation Modeling to Measure Severity of Single-Vehi...
- Drivers’ Smart Assistance System Based on Radio Frequency Identificati...
- Injury severity in delivery-motorcycle to vehicle crashes in the Seoul...
- Analytic methods in accident research: Methodological frontier and fut...
- Modeling safety of highway work zones with random parameters and rando...
- Operational Assessment of Joint and Conventional Lane Merge Configurat...
- Safety Evaluation of Joint and Conventional Lane Merge Configurations ...
- Analysis of Crash Frequency in Work Zones with Focus on Police Enforce...
- The statistical analysis of highway crash-injury severities: A review ...
- Pedestrian injury analysis with consideration of the selectivity bias ...
- Model-Based Application of Abbreviated Injury Scale to Police-Reported...
- Crash Injury Severity Analysis Using Bayesian Ordered Probit Models
Figures and tables
Figures & Media
Tables
View Options
Get access
Access options
If you have access to journal content via a personal subscription, university, library, employer or society, select from the options below:
loading institutional access options
Alternatively, view purchase options below:
Purchase 24 hour online access to view and download content.
Access journal content via a DeepDyve subscription or find out more about this option.
