On-Duty Struck-By Crashes: Characteristics and Contributing Factors

On-duty struck-by crashes are defined as traffic crashes that involve police officers, roadway workers, firefighters, and emergency medical technicians–first responders who are hit by a motorist while on duty assisting at an incident or in a work zone. The objective of this research was to summarize and analyze struck-by crashes on the basis of Wisconsin crash data. Crash data from 2000 to 2010 on Wisconsin's state trunk network were selected from the WisTransPortal database. Data reduction included several filtering steps and manual identification; 265 crashes were identified as struck-by crashes, and their characteristics and contributing factors were analyzed. Responder and worker struck-by crashes were analyzed separately because of their different characteristics, and all state trunk network crashes from 2000 to 2010 were used as a comparison group. Results showed that for responder crashes, police officers were the predominant victim. A large proportion of responder crashes occurred on rural Interstate highways. Speeding or driving too fast for conditions was the key driver factor that led to struck-by crashes, and adverse roadway and weather conditions were the most significant environmental factor. Most emergency responder struck-by crashes occurred when responders were assisting at traffic crashes. However, flaggers hit by surrounding traffic accounted for approximately half of all worker struck-by crashes. Worker crashes were uncorrelated with adverse weather, roadway, or lighting conditions. Inattentive driving was the most significant contributing factor. These results provide the basis for countermeasures to reduce struck-by crashes involving emergency responders and roadway workers.