01477612

Component

Crash-prone drivers should be effectively targeted for various safety education and regulation programs because their over-involvement in crashes presents a big adverse effect on highway safety. By analyzing seven-years of crash data from Louisiana, this paper investigates crash-prone drivers’ characteristics and estimates their risk to have crashes in the seventh year based on these drivers' crash history of the past six years. The analysis results show that quite a few drivers repeatedly had crashes; seven drivers had 13 crashes in seven years; and the maximum number of crashes occurring in a single year to a single driver is eight. Actually, the 5% of drivers who had multiple crashes were responsible for 35% of the crashes that occurred in the seven years in Louisiana. Crash injury rate is also higher for drivers with multiple crashes. The probability of having crash(es) in any given year is closely related to a driver’s crash history; less than 4% for drivers with no crash in the previous six years; and slightly higher than 30% for drivers with nine or more crashes in the previous six years. There are variations in drivers’ age, gender, crash contribution factors, and type of crashes by the number of crashes. Based on the results, several suggestions are made on how to improve roadway safety through reducing crashes committed by drivers with much higher crash risk as identified by the analysis.

This paper was sponsored by TRB committee ANB20 Safety Data, Analysis and Evaluation.

01470560

13-3945

English

13p

2013

Transportation Research Board 92nd Annual Meeting

Digital/other

Figures; References; Tables

Crash risk forecasting; Demographics; High risk drivers; Highway safety; Injury rates; Traffic law enforcement; Traffic safety education

Louisiana

Data and Information Technology; Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I71: Traffic Theory; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor

Transportation Research Board Annual Meeting 2013 Paper #13-3945

TRIS, TRB, ATRI

Feb 5 2013 12:46PM