Investigation of contributing factors regarding wrong-way driving on freeways.

PDFTech ReportFHWA-ICT-12-010ICT-R27-90FreewaysTraffic accidentsWrong way drivingCountermeasuresAccident dataStatistical analysisHighway safetyAccident causesAccident prone locationsIllinoisIllinois. Dept. of Transportation. Bureau of Materials and Physical ResearchZhou, HuaguoZhao, JiguangFries, RyanGahrooei, Mostafa ReisiWang, LinVaughn, BrentBahaaldin, KarzanAyyalasomayajula, BalasubrahmanyamIllinois Center for TransportationUnited States. Federal Highway AdministrationUS Transportation CollectionIn Illinois, there were 217 wrong-way crashes on freeways from 2004 to 2009, resulting in 44 killed and248 injured. This research project sought to determine the contributing factors to wrong-way crashes onfreeways and to develop promising, cost-conscious countermeasures to reduce these driving errors and theirrelated crashes. A thorough literature review was conducted to summarize the best practices on design, safety,and operational issues related to wrong-way driving on freeways by different states in the United States andabroad. Six-year crash data from the Illinois Department of Transportation were then collected for identifyingwrong-way crashes. Out of 632 possible wrong-way crashes identified from the crash database, the 217 actualwrong-way crashes were verified by reviewing hard copies of those crash reports. General statisticalcharacteristics of wrong-way crashes were analyzed, and the findings suggested that a large proportion ofwrong-way crashes occurred during the weekend from 12 midnight to 5 a.m. Approximately 60% of wrong-waydrivers were DUI drivers. Of those, more than 50% were confirmed to be impaired by alcohol, 5% were impairedby drugs, and more than 3% had been drinking. Causal tables, Haddon matrices, and significance tests wereused to identify factors that contribute to wrong-way crashes on Illinois freeways. Alcohol impairment, age,gender, physical condition, driver\ue2\u20ac\u2122s experience and knowledge, time of day, interchange type, and urban andrural areas were found to be significant factors. A new method was developed to rank the high-frequency crashlocations based on the number of recorded or estimated wrong-way freeway entries. Twelve interchanges wereidentified for field reviews. Site-specific and general countermeasures were identified for future implementation