Traffic and geometric characteristics affecting the involvement of large trucks in accidents.

23353388PDFTech ReportVTRC 91-R18VirginiaVirginia Transportation Research CouncilGarber, Nicholas J.Joshua, Sarath C.US Transportation CollectionRecent trends indicate that vehicle miles traveled for large trucks is increasing at a higher rate than for other vehicles. The resulting competition between large trucks and other vehicles for highway space can be expected to result in more multi-vehicle collisions involving large trucks. The likelihood of these collisions causing severe injuries to vehicle occupants will also increase with the trend towards the use of smaller automobiles and heavier and larger trucks. In order to develop countermeasures that will alleviate this problem, it is first necessary to identify the characteristics of large-truck accidents and the role of traffic and geometric variables in such accidents. This study investigated the major factors associated with large truck accidents including the effect of highway facility type and highway geometry, and the development of mathematical models relating the factors with accident rates and probability of occurrence. This first volume documents the methodology of the study, the results of a statistical analysis of large-trucks historical accident data, the results of a fault tree analysis. This second volume gives a detailed description of the development of the regression and logistic models