Bus accident severity and passenger injury: evidence from Denmark

Bus safety is a concern not only in developing countries, but also in the U.S. and Europe. In Denmark, disentangling risk factors that are positively or negatively related to bus accident severity and bus passenger injury occurrence can contribute to promote safety as an essential principle of sustainable transit and advance the vision “every accident is one too many”. Bus accident data were retrieved from the Danish national accident database for the period 2002-2011. A generalized ordered logit model allowed analyzing bus accident severity and a logistic regression enabled examining occurrence of injury to bus passengers. An increase in bus accident severity is positively related to (i) the involvement of vulnerable road users, (ii) high speed limits, (iii) night hours, (iv) elderly drivers of the third party involved, and (v) bus drivers and other drivers crossing in yellow or red light. Occurrence of injury to bus passengers is positively related to (i) the involvement of heavy vehicles, (ii) crossing intersections in yellow or red light, (iii) open areas, (iv) high speed limits, and (v) slippery road surface. The findings of the current study provide a widespread picture of the bus safety situation in Denmark and suggest the necessity of further research into bus drivers’ attitudes and perceptions of risks and road users’ perceptions of bus operations. Moreover, these findings suggest the need for further training into bus drivers’ hazard recognition skills and infrastructural solutions to forgive possible driving errors