Roadside Infrastructure for Safer European Roads PROJECT START DATE: 01/01/2003 DURATION: 36 months CONTRACT NUMBER: GRD2/2001/50088//S07.15369 Co-Sponsored by DG-TREN TU-Graz Institute for Mechanics Heinz Hoschopf WP 1: ACCIDENT ANALYSIS Objectives: Collect and summarise the accident information supporting the development of design and maintenance guidelines Tasks: T1.1: Collection of Statistical Information T1.2: Detailed Reconstructions Databases T1.3: Operations / Human Factors Data T1.4: Synthesis Deliverables: D1: Database and database structures (T1.1, T1.2, T1.4) D2: Summary of driver response (T1.3) Milestone M1: Background material for collision analysis
Collection of Statistical Information Accident Selection Criteria The primary focus in the project is to reduce fatal and injury accidents in the roadside area. Therefore the accident selection criterion is only focusing on single vehicle accidents. The criteria for the cases in the statistical database includes one vehicle that collides with the roadside infrastructure on rural roads. Limitations Single vehicle accidents only (passenger cars, trucks and motorcycles) No pedestrian involved Year 1999-2002 Fatal, Serious, Slight or Non-injury accidents No minor rural roads No urban roads Data Sources Austria: sub-set of the accident database of the Kuratorium für Schutz und Sicherheit (KUSS). Basis for this database is the accident database of Österreichische Statistische Zentralamt, which includes all accidents collected from police census papers. Only injury accidents are included. Finland: reported by police and Road Accident Investigation Teams (mostly fatal accidents). Police criminal registration system (RIKI since 1997) - Centralised register - Finnish National Road Administration (Finnra) Accident database in Finnra is based on the data obtained from RIKI and. The reporting on fatal accidents is 100 % but the reporting of injury accidents, and especially accidents involving only property damage, is much lower. France: French national Road Administration's accident database, used by police and gendarmerie to report traffic accidents. Any injury accident should be reported and coded in a Bulletin d'analyse d'accident Corporel de la Circulation (BAAC). The database is made available to the French Ministry of Transport afterwards. Spain: the national accident statistics database of Spain is run by the General Directorate of Traffic (DGT), dependent of the Spanish Ministry of the Interior. This database is fed by the police reports for all kinds of road accidents where at least one casualty was registered. This means many thousands of accidents, among which those described as run-off-road (single vehicles) involving roadside features, can be sorted out.
Data Sources Sweden: the Swedish National Road Administration s Accident Database, OLY is one of two road accident databases that have been used by the police to report traffic accidents to the Swedish National Road Administration, SNRA. OLY is the old accident database no longer in use. It has been used parallel to the Swedish TRaffic Accident Data Acquisition, STRADA, during the years 1999-2002. From January 1st 2003, all police authorities and approximately 50% of the emergency hospitals to date are reporting traffic accidents to STRADA. The Netherlands: The main traffic accident database in Holland is the VOR Database. VOR stands for traffic accident registration and is maintained by the Adviesdienst Verkeer en Vervoer (AVV), a governmental institute. The police carry out the registration of traffic accidents at the accident scene. The police reports all the registrations to the department of AVV, where the data is evaluated and logged into the database. The database covers fatal accidents, accidents with injuries and material damage accidents. United Kingdom: The STATS19 national database, run by the UK Government, contains comprehensive information about UK road accidents on the public highway which includes human injury or death. The data contains highway, vehicle and human information. The information is originally compiled at the time of the accident by the police, so no medical information is contained about casualties beyond the classification of injury severity as either Fatal, Serious or Slight, according to defined criteria. Database Structure for Statistical Database The criterion for a variable was that it should be of interest for and more than one country could report it. All important variables connected to road infrastructure were chosen. The 20 chosen variables are shown below, Table_CrashData AccidentID Date Time RoadType CarriagewayType RoadCondition Weather SpeedLimit Light NoOfVehicleOccupant AccidentType RoadAlignment HitObject VehicleType DeformationLocation 1 Table_CasualtyData OccupantID AccidentID PersonClass Age Gender Alcohol InjurySeverity SeatbeltUsage
General Statistics Differences in data collection in the countries. Other factors that affect road safety (topography, transit, tourism, quality of roads, size and quality of cars, attitude to safety belts and speed and respect of traffic regulations, etc.) Most accidents occur during daylight but the crash severity during darkness is higher. The statistic research showed a high fatality rate of single vehicle accidents. Road Traffic Accidents - Single Vehicle Accidents (Road Traffic Accidents = 100%) 40 35 30 25 [%] 20 15 10 5 0 SVA Persons killed Persons injured Germany Greece Austria General Statistics Comparing road side furniture there are great differences in the frequency, fatality and injury risk but the trend shows a high fatality risk on tree and pole impacts. Regarding the vehicles involved in single vehicle accidents the research showed that this accident type mainly occurs for cars, vans and trucks. Motorcycle and moped crashes are minor important. Although motorcycle accidents have not a relevant influence on the accident statistics there is an high fatality rate within these kind of accidents. In the urban areas single vehicle accidents do not play a dominant role as they do in rural areas. Front end rear end collisions dominate, and lateral collisions and collisions with pedestrians exceed single vehicle accidents. The crash severity peaks of with bad weather conditions.
General Statistics In the US 1997 only 29 % of all crashes were single vehicle accidents but 56% of the fatalities. Collision with another motor vehicle in transport was the most common first harmful event for fatal, injury, and property-damage-only crashes. Collisions with fixed objects and noncollisions accounted for only 18 percent of all crashes, but they accounted for 43 percent of fatal crashes. Regardless of crash severity, the majority of vehicles in single- and twovehicle crashes were going straight prior to the crash. The next most common vehicle manoeuvre differed by crash severity: negotiating a curve for fatal crashes, turning left for injury crashes, and stopped in traffic lane for property-damage-only crashes. Motorcycles in fatal crashes had the highest proportion of collisions with fixed objects (28.2 percent). Occupant fatalities in single-vehicle crashes accounted for 41 percent of all motor vehicle fatalities in 1999. Occupant fatalities in multiple-vehicle crashes accounted for 45 percent of all fatalities, and the remaining 14 percent were no occupant fatalities (pedestrians, pedal cyclists, etc.). SVA Data from 273 645 accidents were collected by the partners. According to the selection criteria for Single Vehicle Accident (SVA) Sweden delivered 7.2%, Finland 2%, Austria 6.3%, France 18.8%, Spain 25%, United Kingdom 8.9% and the Netherlands 31.8 % of the SVA cases. SVA - YEARS DATABASE 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 TOTAL SWE1-1 6 401 2 517 2 843 3 103-14 864 SWE2-2 - - 1 612 2 745 496 4 853 FIN - 3-1 527 1 896 1 956-5 379 AUT - 4-5 605 5 978 5 762-17 345 FRA - 5 13 507 12 841 12 684 12 486-51 518 ESP - 6 16 702 16 909 17 385 17 423-68 419 GB - 7-7 822 8 246 8 236-24 304 NL - 8 24 634 21 982 21 324 19 023-86 963 TOTAL 61 244 69 203 71 968 70 734 496 273 645
Statistics Roadside hazard crash deaths (USA 1998) About a third of motor vehicle deaths involve vehicles leaving the roadway and hitting fixed objects. Roadside hazard crashes occur in both urban and rural areas but are mostly a problem on rural roads. They're most likely to occur on curves and/or downhill road sections. More than a third involve a vehicle that rolls over, and about a third involve occupant ejection. Trees are by far the most common objects struck in roadside hazard crashes. Conclusions Harmonization of data collection in the countries Other factors that affect road safety should not be neglected (regional parameters have influence on safety) Regarding road side furniture great differences in the frequency, fatality and injury risk Influence of vehicle type (SUV rollover, ), trends Factor driver (human factors), visualization, barriers can also have a leading function