TRANSPORTATION SAFETY

“Safety is an important element

in the design and operations of the
nation’s transportation system.”

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

•improving vehicle design
•modifying roadway geometry, and
•enhancing the traveling environment

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

“Accident” vs “Crash”
Accident
• implies a random event that
occurs for no apparent reason
other than “it just happened.”
Crash
• implying that the vehicle
collision may have been caused
by any number of events.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Major Factors Involved in Transportation
Crashes
1. actions by the driver,
2. condition of the vehicle,
3. geometric characteristics of the travelway, and
4. the physical or climatic environment in which the
vehicle operates.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Things to Consider in Analysis of Accident
Statistics
To compare the accident experience of several locations fairly, the
period of time over which accidents are counted and the length of roadway
section should ideally be the same at each location.
If not, an accident rate may be compared between locations,
expressed for a common unit of exposure (i.e., accidents per million vehicle
miles, or accidents per million entering vehicles)

https://cce.oregonstate.edu/sites/cce.oregonstate.edu/files/pw_accid.pdf
Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella
Things to Consider in Analysis of Accident
Statistics
• Analysis Period Considerations
• Accident data for the most recent 1 to 3-year period is normally used and is
generally sufficient
• 2 or 3 year analysis periods are more appropriate at locations with low traffic
volumes, where a 1-year period may not provide sufficient information.
• Accident data should only be used when there are no major changes in facility
characteristics or land use.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Things to Consider in Analysis of Accident
Statistics
• Analysis Roadway Length Considerations
• The roadway network can be divided into spots and/or segments. Isolated
curves, bridges, and intersections are examples of spot locations. Segments
are typically defined by a particular length (e.g., 300 feet, 0.1 mile, 1.0 mile,
etc.) or as the section of highway between two defined spots.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Things to Consider in Analysis of Accident
Statistics
• When selecting a length for spots or segments, the following points are
considered:
• Segment (long roadway) lengths should be no shorter than the minimum distance
used by police officers to describe an accident location.
• For areas where accident reporting is subject to errors or less accuracy (i.e., rural
areas or areas where field reference markers are far apart), longer segment lengths
should be used for analysis purposes.
• Spot (short roadway) lengths should include the area of influence around a hazard.
For instance, the analysis of intersections should include all accidents that occur
within a specified radius, such as 250 feet, from the center of the intersection.
Driveway accidents occurring within 250 feet from the center of an intersection
should, therefore, be included in the count of accidents for that intersection.
Logically, it should be the stopping sight distance, plus the queue length at
intersections.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Accident Rates for 100 million vehicle miles (or
km) of travel for a segment of a highway
Where
𝑹 = the accident rate for 100
million vehicle miles (or km)
𝑨(𝟏𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎) 𝑨 = the number of accidents
𝑹= during the period of analysis
𝑨𝑫𝑻 (𝑵)(𝟑𝟔𝟓)(𝑳)
𝑨𝑫𝑻 = average daily traffic
𝑵 = time period in years
𝑳 = length of segment in miles (or
km),

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Accident Rates per million entering vehicles for a
particular segment (specific segment or
intersection) Where
𝑹 = the accident rate for 1 million
vehicle miles (or km)
𝑨(𝟏, 𝟎𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎) 𝑨 = the number of accidents
𝑹= during the period of analysis
𝑨𝑫𝑻 (𝑵)(𝟑𝟔𝟓)
𝑨𝑫𝑻 = average daily traffic
𝑵 = time period in years

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 1

The number of accidents for a 6 years

recorded in a certain section of a highway is 5892.
If the average daily traffic is 476, determine the
accident rate per million entering vehicles

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 2
From the given data of traffic counts for a certain portion of
SCTEX are listed below:
Length of the segment = 6 miles
Average daily traffic (ADT) = 7500
Number of crashes per year = 28
Number of fatal crashes per year = 4
Determine the accident rate per 100 million vehicle-miles.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Severity Ratio
𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑙 + 𝑖𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑦
𝑆𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑅𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜 =
𝑓𝑎𝑡𝑎𝑙 + 𝑖𝑛𝑗𝑢𝑟𝑦 + 𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑡𝑦 𝑑𝑎𝑚𝑎𝑔𝑒

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 3
Data on a traffic accident recorded for the past 5 years on a
certain stretch of a two-lane highway is tabulated as follows:
Year Property Damage Injury Fatal
2010 110 42 4
2011 210 54 2
2012 182 60 5
2013 240 74 7
2014 175 94 6
TOTAL 917 324 24
Compute for the severity ratio

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Critical Crash Rate per 100 Million Vehicle
Miles or per Million Entering Vehicles
Where
𝟎. 𝟓 𝑨𝑽𝑹
𝑪𝑹 = 𝑨𝑽𝑹 + + 𝑻𝑭 𝑪𝑹 = critical crash rate per 100
𝑻𝑩 𝑻𝑩 million entering vehicles
𝑨𝑽𝑹 = average crash rate for the
𝑨𝑨𝑫𝑻 𝑳 𝑵 (𝟑𝟔𝟓) facility type
𝑻𝑩 =
𝟏𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎, 𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝑻𝑭 = test factor, standard
deviation at a given confidence
level
𝑻𝑩 = traffic base per 100 million
entering vehicles

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 4
Given:
Length of the segment of the highway = 0.3 miles
Average annual daily traffic (AADT) = 16 000 veh/day
Test factor = 1.96 for 95% confidence level
Average crash rate for the facility type = 730
Calculate the critical crash rate.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Crash Reduction Factor to Determine the
Reduction in Crashes
𝑁 𝐶𝑅 (𝐴𝐷𝑇 𝑎𝑓𝑡𝑒𝑟 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡)
𝐶𝑟𝑎𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 =
𝐴𝐷𝑇 𝑏𝑒𝑓𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑟𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡
Where
𝑁 = expected number of crashes if countermeasure is not implemented
and if the traffic volume is the same
𝐶𝑅 = crash reduction factor for a specific countermeasure
𝐴𝐷𝑇 = average daily traffic

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 5
Given:
ADT before improvement = 6624 (average over a 3-year period)
ADT after improvement = 9200
CR reduction factor = 30%
Number of crashes occurring per year = 10, 12, 14 (over the 3-year
before improvement)
Determine the expected reduction in number of crashes occurring after
the implementation of the countermeasure.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Overall Crashes Reduction Factor for Multiple
Mutually Exclusive Improvements at a Single Site
𝑪𝑹 = 𝑪𝑹𝟏 + 𝟏 − 𝑪𝑹𝟏 𝑪𝑹𝟐 + 𝟏 − 𝑪𝑹𝟏 𝟏 − 𝑪𝑹𝟐 𝑪𝑹𝟑 + ⋯
Where
𝑪𝑹 = overall crash reduction factor
𝑪𝑹𝟏 , 𝑪𝑹𝟐 , 𝑪𝑹𝟑 = crash reduction factor for a specific counter measure

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella

Example 6
At a single location along NLEX, three countermeasures with
crash reduction factors of CR1=38%, CR2=26%, CR3=22% are proposed.
Determine the overall crash reduction factor.

Prepared by: Engr. Vergel Adam T. Estella