Relationships between lighting and animal-vehicle collisions.

Details

• Creators:
  Sullivan, John M.
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Michigan. Transportation Research Institute
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Fatalities
  • Crashes
  • Deer
  • Vehicle lighting
  • Traffic fatalities--United States--Statistics
  • Traffic safety and wildlife--United States--Statistics
  • Deer--United States
  • Automobiles--Lighting--United States
• Publication/ Report Number:
  UMTRI-2009-35
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Michigan
• Corporate Publisher:
  University of Michigan. Transportation Research Institute
• Abstract:
  In 1990, there were 106 traffic fatalities in the United States in crashes for which a collision with an ; animal was the first harmful event; by 2007 this level had risen to 223—a 110% increase. Analyses of ; annual trends suggest that this increase cannot be fully explained by increases in vehicle miles travelled, ; nor by changes in the general fatal and nonfatal crash rates. Animal-vehicle collisions (AVCs) represent ; a small but increasing share of the overall crash picture. ; Daily and seasonal AVC crash trends were examined and appear to follow the activity patterns of the ; U.S. deer population. This involves peaks in the hourly crash levels around dawn and dusk, and a ; seasonal peak during October and November. AVC crash distributions are presented by state. ; The odds of an AVC in darkness were modeled as a function of posted speed limit in a series of logistic ; regressions. Higher posted speeds were associated with proportionally greater crash risk in darkness. ; The effect is observed for fatal collisions compiled from the Fatality Analysis Reporting System ; (FARS), and for injury and property-damage-only (PDO) crashes compiled from Michigan crash ; datasets. One implication of the effect is that countermeasures designed to extend a driver’s preview ; time for animals, such as headlighting and night-vision systems may help reduce the risk of AVCs.
  More +
• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/17000/dot_17000_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 828.68 KB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:de0c21d37c298d521fb7c39adb77570597d064780c688af0529278aa06ba2c7d