ECV4603-Traffic Safety & Management (Accident Statistics)

Case Study I: Analysis of Hazardous Road Sections

Table 1 shows five roadway sections (A through E) that were identified as high-accident sections
based on the use of several identification methods. All sections are two-lane district roads with 3
to 3.3 metre lanes and shoulders less than 1 metre wide. All sections are on rolling terrain with
moderate horizontal curvature.

Table 1 : Details of identified high-accident road sections

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Section No. of Accidents No. of
Section Length(km) AADT PDO* Slight Serious Fatal Years
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A 1.3 4,200 12 1 2 0 3
B 1.9 3,500 15 0 5 1 2
C 5.5 1,750 35 2 6 0 2.5
D 3.5 2,400 24 0 3 0 1.5
E 2.6 3,000 12 4 9 2 3
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*PDO is Property Damage Only

Note that the number of years of accident data that was used (i.e., 1.5 to 3 years) varies because
of some inaccuracies in portions of the accident data base for some previous years. Section lengths
vary between 1.3 and 5.5 km per section, and average annual daily traffic (AADT) ranges from
1,750 to 4,200 vehicles per day.

Analyse the accident statistics as given in the above table and identify which section (s)
warrants remediation or further investigation using the followings:

i) Accident frequency method (accidents per km per year)

(3.85, 5.53, 3.13, 5.14, 3.46)
ii) Accident rate method (accidents per million vehicle km travelled)
(2.51, 4.33, 4.90, 5.87, 3.16)

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Case Study II: Warrants for high accidents intersections

A road safety department responsible of road accident issues within a small busy town wishes to
rectify serious accident problems occurring at many of the intersections within the town. However,
due to budget constraints, the department needs to prioritise on intersections that really need
improvement. Their record for six intersections within the town area is as shown in Table 2.

Table 2: Accident rate at six intersections

Intersection code T1 T2 CR1 CR2 CR3 CR4

Accident rate per 14.4 13.6 16.1 15.2 18.7 17.9

1-million entering
vehicles

If the department decides to tackle one major intersection (CR3) that has an accident rate of 18.7
per 1-million entering vehicles, analyse and advise the road safety department whether this
particular intersection is warranted for remedial measures at 95% confidence.