The Severity of Traffic Crashes in Italy: An Explorative Analysis among Different Driving Circumstances

Abstract

Analyzing traffic accidents is very important due to their direct impact on the social environment. In the literature, many studies focus on the different aspects that influence traffic accidents, such as human, vehicle, road and environment risk factors. In this paper, we propose a methodology for testing the relationship between road, external environment, driver and vehicle characteristics, and certain circumstances that lead to the traffic crashes. Particularly, we elaborate on logistic regression models for evaluating how these different characteristics impact on crash severity, considering the combination of traffic circumstances that caused the crash. In each combination, a vehicle proceeded regularly, whereas the other vehicle did an incorrect maneuver (the vehicle proceeded: with distracted driving; without maintaining the safety distance; with speeding; by maneuvering to join the circulation flow; against the flow). The present work analyzes data related to road crashes which occurred in Italy during 2016 involving two vehicles. The results show that the variables significantly influencing crash severity are different depending on the combinations of circumstances that cause the crash.

Spatial Mental Transformation Skills Discriminate Fitness to Drive in Young and Old Adults

“…According to Michon (1979) , dangers, such as the risk of being involved in an accident, will occur with some probabilities while driving. A number of factors, acting alone or connected, could cause accidents to occur, such as vehicle (i.e., tires’ conditions), road (i.e., road grip), environmental (i.e., weather conditions), and human (i.e., cognitive failures, attentional blinks) factors ( Treat et al, 1979 ; Evans, 1991 ; Eboli and Forciniti, 2020 ). Human factors, which are considered the cause of more than 70% of road accidents ( Evans, 1996 ; Petridou and Moustaki, 2000 ; Istat, 2019 ), refer to an individuals’ driving skills, driving style, cognitive abilities, and personality measures ( Evans, 1991 ; Elander et al, 1993 ).…”

Identifying the Factors That Increase the Probability of an Injury or Fatal Traffic Crash in an Urban Context in Jordan

“…When comparing different land use types, the results show that non-categorized zones (NC) have the highest injuring crash probability, followed by industrial and residential, if commercial zones are the reference category (2.8, 2.1, and 1.3 times greater, respectively). Several studies (e.g., [17,[43][44][45][46][47]) present similar findings about the outcomes of crashes in segments with intense activity (commercial, residential, etc. ).…”

“…In addition, this study considers the neighborhood scale (NESC) and land use (LUSE). The effect of such factors has been analyzed and discussed in previous studies [18,43], and it is thought that widely dispersed developments and low density often increase vehicle miles traveled, this magnitude being directly related to higher crash rates and severity. Our study also showed that being in a large-scale neighborhood increases the odds ratio of injuring crashes by a factor of 6.7.…”

Exploring Factors Influencing Injury Severity of Vehicle At-Fault Accidents: A Comparative Analysis of Passenger and Freight Vehicles

“…Factors influencing the injury severity of traffic accidents have been discussed by many scholars. Previous studies indicated that factors affecting the severity of road traffic accidents include the age of the motor vehicle driver [6], aggressive driving behavior [7], driving experience [8], drunk driving [9], weather [10], road infrastructure [11], hazardous materials transportation [12], accident circumstances [13], etc.…”