Traffic engineering (11)

Accedents Studies
Dr Aodai A Ismail

Traffic engineering – 3rd stage - Civil Engineering Department - Tikrit University

2022-2023
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Accedents Studies

Many people were killed in accidents, in addition to more injury and large
losses of property damage. Notice table below.

Safety requerments used to reduce the severity of accedents. As

shown in figure below.

Tikrit university
1
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Approaches to Highway Safety

Improving highway safety involves consideration of three elements influencing
traffic operations: the driver, the vehicle, and the roadway

Three basic strategies that may be employed to improve traffic safety:

1. Exposure control
2. Accident risk control
3. Injury control

Exposure control

Involves strategies that reduce the number of vehicle-miles of travel by motorists. to

reduce auto use include:
 Diversion of travel to public transportation modes
 Substitution of telecommunications for travel
 Implementation of policies, taxes, and fees to discourage auto ownership and
use
 Reorganization of land uses to minimize travel distances for various trip
purposes
 Driver and vehicle restrictions through licensing and registration restrictions

Accident risk control

 Driver and pedestrian training

 Provision of better highway designs and control devices that encourage good
driving practices and minimize the occurrence of driver error.
 Design and protection of roadside and median environments.

Tikrit university
2
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Injury control

 Seat belts
 Child seats
 Padded instrument panels
 Energy-absorbing steering
 Air bags
 Head rests
 Shatter proof glass

Accident Statistics

Accident statistics are measures (or estimates) of the number and severity of
accidents.

Types of Statistics

Accident statistics generally address and describe one o three principal informational
elements:

* Accident occurrence

* Accident involvements

* Accident severity

Tikrit university
3
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Statistics in these three categories can be stratified and analyzed in an almost infinite
number of ways, depending upon the factors of interest to the analyst. Some common
types of analyses include:
 Trends over time
 Stratification by highway type
 Stratification by driver characteristics
 Stratification by contributing cause
 Stratification by accident type
 Stratification by environmental conditions

Tikrit university
4
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Accident Rates
Many accident statistics are presented in the form of rates.

Population-Based Accident Rates

Accident rates generally fall into one of two broad categories:

population-based rates
Some common bases for population-based rates include:
 Area population
 Number of registered vehicles
 Number of licensed drivers
 Highway mileage

Exposure-Based Accident Rates

Exposure-based rates attempt to measure the amount of travel as a surrogate for the
individual’s exposure to potential accident situations. The two most common bases
for exposure-based rates are:
 Vehicle-miles traveled
 Vehicle-hours traveled

Common Bases for Accident and Fatality Rates

In computing accident rates, numbers should be scaled to produce meaningful values.

1. Population-based rates
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 100,000 area population
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 10,000 registered vehicles
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 10,000 licensed drivers
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 1,000 miles of highway

Tikrit university
5
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

2. Exposure-based rates
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 100,000,000 vehicle-miles
traveled
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 10,000,000 vehicle-hours traveled
 Fatalities, accidents, or involvements per 1,000,000 entering vehicles (for
intersections only)
In general terms, all rates are computed as:

Kate = Total * ( Scale / Base)

where:
Total = total number of accidents, involvements, or fatalities.
Scale = scale of the base statistic, as “X’ vehicle- mile traveled.
Base = total base statistic for the period of the rate.

Example. the following are sample of accident statistics. Comput fatality rates
depending on: population, registered vehicles and licensed drivers.

Tikrit university
6
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Sol. Kate = Total * ( Scale / Base)

Fatality rates depending on population = 75 * ( 100,000/300,000)
= 25 deaths per 100,000 population
Fatality rates depending on registered vehicles = 75 * ( 10,000100,000)
= 7.5 deaths per 10,000 registered vehicles
Fatality rates depending on licensed drivers = 75 * (10,000/150,000)
= 5.0 deaths per 10,000 licensed drivers
Fatality rates depending on veh-mi traveled = 75 * (100,000,000/1,500,000,000)
= 5.0 deaths per 100,000,000 veh-mi traveled
------------------------------
(Note Similar rates may also be computed for accidents and involvements)
Severity Index
A widely used statistic for the description of relative accident severity is the severity
index (SI), defined as the number of fatalities per accident.

SI = fatalities / accident

Ex. For the data of the revious example, find Severity Index.
Sol. There were 7.5 fatalities in a total of 2,360 accidents.
SI = fatalities / accident
SI = 75/ 2360 = 0.0318 deaths per accident
Statistical Displays

For each type of accident, three questions should be asked:

1. What driver actions lead to the occurrence of such accidents?
2. What existing conditions at the site could contribute to drivers taking such actions?
3. What changes can be made to reduce the chances of such actions taking place?

Tikrit university
7
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

ldentifying High-Accident locations

Typical Accident Spot Map

Tikrit university
8
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Tikrit university
9
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Illustrative Collision Diagram

Tikrit university
10
Traffic eng. (11) Accedents Studies Dr. Aodai A Ismail

Illustrative Condition Diagram

------------------------------------------------

‫نسال هللا تعالى السالمة‬

Tikrit university
11