PURPOSES : For vehicle-alone accidents with a high mortality rate, it is necessary to analyze the factors influencing the severity of roadside fixed-object traffic accidents. METHODS : A total of 313 roadside fixed obstacle traffic accidents, variables related to fixed obstacles, and variables related to road geometry were collected. The estimation model was constructed with data collected using an ordinal probit regression model. RESULTS : Piers, vertical slopes, and distances between roads and objects were the primary causes of increased accident severity. CONCLUSIONS : Countermeasures, such as object removal, relocation, clear zones, frangibles, breakaway poles, etc., are required for accident-prone or dangerous points.

PURPOSES: The purpose of this study is to investigate factors that affect the severity of children’s traffic accidents using the ordered probit model, and to contribute to a safer road environment for children. METHODS: This study used children’s traffic accident data during the last four years in the Incheon Metropolitan area. At this point, to analyze only the direct damage caused to children, the analysis was made of accidents where the victim was under 13 years old. Data from a total of 1,110 accidents was collected. When the model was constructed, as it was judged that there could be a difference in factors affecting accident occurrence depending on the zone characteristics, the model was divided into school and non-school zones. RESULTS: The accident content (severity) is divided into four stages (fatal injury, serious injury, minor injury and injury report) to construct the order-typed probit model. For the analysis, 65 variables of 17 categories were included in the model. The statistical package STATA 13.1 was used to analyze the variables affecting the accident severity with a confidence level of 90% (α·=0.1). Consequently, a total of 15 variables were found to have a statistically significant effect on accident severity in a school zone. In contrast, a total of 22 variables were found to have a statistically significant effect on accident severity in non-school zones. Four variables (daytime, weekday, victim age, intersection) were significant in both models. CONCLUSIONS: Among the significant variables found in school zones, signal violation and type of vehicle (line bus, rent car, bus, business other vehicles) had a relatively greater effect on the accident severity than the other variables. In non-school zones, eight variables comprising daytime, head-on collision, crossing, over-speed, gender of victim (male), victim age, type of vehicle (construction machinery), driver age (50-59) were found to be significant variables. In conclusion, as well as eliminating factors that can lead to accident reductions, it is necessary to consider zone characteristics to reduce the severity of children’s accidents and promote children’s traffic safety.

PURPOSES: This study aims to contribute to a better road environment, which can result in accident reduction from two-wheeled vehicles, by analyzing factors affecting the two-wheeled vehicles’ accident severities in Incheon Metropolitan City. METHODS: In this study, the two-wheeled vehicles’ accident severity was classified into four categories (fatal injury, serious injury, minor injury, and injury report) as a dependent variable, and 97 independent variables out of 14 categories were considered to construct an ordered probit model. To determine the factors affecting accident severity, the statistical package LIMDEP was used. RESULTS: Among the variables used in the analysis, variables related to accident occurrence date (first quarter), region (8-district), accident type (passing the edge of the road of the vehicle for a pedestrian accident, fixed object collision, and overturn of vehicle-only accident), violation type (unobtained safety distance, failure to perform safe driving, violation of intersection driving, and violation of others), the type of road (at the intersection, near the intersection, at the crosswalk, near the crosswalk, etc.), gender of assailant (male), vehicle of victim (pedestrian and motorcycle), and age of victim (under 20) were found to have a statistically significant effect on the severity of the accident. CONCLUSIONS: The variables related to accident type (fixed object collision and overturn of vehicle-only accident), gender of assailant (male), and vehicle of victim (pedestrian and motorcycle) have turned out increasing the accident severity. In addition, accident occurrence for two-wheeled vehicles is more diverse and vulnerable to damage than automobile accidents. Therefore, it is time to recognize the seriousness of two-wheeled vehicle accidents and to improve the environment and systems for safe driving.

PURPOSES : Low visibility caused by dark surroundings at nighttime affects the likelihood of accidents, and various efforts, such as installing road safety facilities, have been made to reduce accidents at night. Despite these efforts, the nighttime severity index (SI) in Korea was higher than the daytime SI during 2011-2014. This study determined the factors affecting daytime and nighttime accident severity through a discriminant analysis. METHODS: Discriminant analysis. RESULTS: First, drowsiness, lack of attention, and lighting facilities affected both daytime and nighttime accident severity. Accidents were found to be caused by a low ability to recognize the driving conditions and a low obstacle avoidance capability. Second, road conditions and speeding affected only the daytime accident severity. Third, failure to maintain a safe distance significantly affected daytime accident severity and nonsignificantly affected nighttime accident severity. The majority of such accidents were caused by rear-end collisions of vehicles driving in the same direction; given the low relative speed difference in such cases, the shock imparted by the accidents was minimal. CONCLUSIONS: Accidents caused by a failure to maintain a safe distance has lower severity than do accidents caused by other factors.

PURPOSES: The objective of this study is to analyze factors affecting traffic accident severity for determining countermeasures on freeway climbing lanes. METHODS : In this study, an ordered probit model, which is a widely used discrete choice model for categorizing crash severity, was employed. RESULTS: Results suggest that factors affecting traffic accident severity on climbing lanes include speed, drowsy driving, grade of uphill 3%, gender (male offender and male victim), and cloud weather. CONCLUSIONS : Several countermeasures are proposed for improving traffic safety on freeway climbing lanes based on the analysis of crash severity. More extensive analysis with a larger data set and various modeling techniques are required for generalizing the results.

PURPOSES: The purpose of this study is to verify traffic accident injury severity factors for elderly drivers and the relative relationship of these factors. METHODS: To verify the complicated relationship among traffic accident injury severity factors, this study employed a structural equation model (SEM). To develop the SEM structure, only the severity of human injuries was considered; moreover, the observed variables were selected through confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). The number of fatalities, serious injuries, moderate injuries, and minor injuries were selected for observed variables of severity. For latent variables, the accident situation, environment, and vehicle and driver factors were respectively defined. Seven observed variables were selected among the latent variables. RESULTS: This study showed that the vehicle and driver factor was the most influential factor for accident severity among the latent factors. For the observed variable, the type of vehicle, type of accident, and status of day or night for each latent variable were the most relative observed variables for the accident severity factor. To verify the validity of the SEM, several model fitting methods, including , GFI, AGFI, CFI, and others, were applied, and the model produced meaningful results. CONCLUSIONS: Based on an analysis of results of traffic accident injury severity for elderly drivers, the vehicle and driver factor was the most influential one for injury severity. Therefore, education tailored to elderly drivers is needed to improve driving behavior of elderly driver.

PURPOSES: The purposes are to analyze the pedestrian accident severity and to develop the accident models by arterial road function. METHODS: To analyze the accident, count data and ordered logit models are utilized in this study. In pursuing the above, this study uses pedestrian accident data from 2007 to 2011 in Cheongju. RESULTS : The main results are as follows. First, daytime, Tue.Wed.Thu., over-speeding, male pedestrian over 65 old are selected as the independent variables to increase pedestrian accident severity. Second, as the accident models of main and minor arterial roads, the negative binomial models are developed, which are analyzed to be statistically significant. Third, such the main variables related to pedestrian accidents as traffic and pedestrian volume, road width, number of exit/entry are adopted in the models. Finally, Such the policy guidelines as the installation of pedestrian fence, speed hump and crosswalks with pedestrian refuge area, designated pedestrian zone, and others are suggested for accident reduction. CONCLUSIONS: This study analyzed the pedestrian accident severity, and developed the negative binomial accident models. The results of this study expected to give some implications to the pedestrian safety improvement in Cheongju.

In this study, with the objects of 173 institutions of university and research institutions, investigation was carried out through visit investigation ar d questionnaire investigation. Frequency and severity of occurrences was acquired mainly through universities and research institutions which have reported occurrences of accidents to the Ministry of Education, Science, and Technology. Quantitative danger evaluation was conducted through frequency and strength of occurrences. Case study was carried out by selecting bio science laboratory of university and as the result of this study, degree of danger among the inspection objects of bio science laboratories, laboratory work place was evaluated as the most dangerous with the scores of 155.00 and as the result of average danger level, compression gas cylinder was evaluated as the most dangerous with the scores of 6.4000.