Comparing crash trends and severity in the northern Rocky Mountain region.

Details

• Creators:
  Andreen, Burt ; Ksaibati, Khaled
• Corporate Creators:
  University of Wyoming. Department of Civil and Architectural Engineering
• Corporate Contributors:
  United States. Federal Highway Administration
• Subject/TRT Terms:
  • Crash data
  • Crash severity
  • Trend (Statistics)
  • Highway safety
  • Fatalities
  • Crash causes
  • Traffic law enforcement
  • Logistic regression analysis
• Publication/ Report Number:
  FHWA-WY-12/03F
• Resource Type:
  Tech Report
• Geographical Coverage:
  Wyoming;North Dakota
• Corporate Publisher:
  Wyoming. Department of Transportation
• Abstract:
  Safety Management Systems are federally mandated in an effort to encourage states to develop strategic programs in order to ; mitigate severe crashes. In 2006, the Wyoming Department of Transportation (WYDOT) published the Wyoming Strategic Highway Safety ; Plan (SHSP). The plan outlines goals for the state and transportation areas of strategic emphasis. While the SHSP has proven successful ; in lowering crash rates, Wyoming is constantly plagued by one of the highest fatal crash rates in the region. In the northern Rocky Mountain ; region, North Dakota historically boasts the lowest fatal crash rates, while Colorado has the highest. Other states in the region are ; Wyoming, Montana, Utah, South Dakota, and Idaho. In an effort towards continued safety improvement, WYDOT is investigating whether ; there is a link between certain factors in North Dakota and the low number of fatal crashes experienced there. The basis of this research ; centers on evaluating key differences between North Dakota and Wyoming to determine if there are policies, practices, and or physical ; differences that keep North Dakota’s fatal crash rate lower. This research investigates patrol enforcement differences, traffic safety laws, ; crash records, mileage records, vehicle records, and economic factors as possible sources of crash rate differences. When some critical ; factors were identified, Logistic Regression Modeling was applied to two Wyoming interstates to identify safety concerns for implementation ; within Wyoming’s transportation SHSP. It was found that on Interstates 80 and 25 in Wyoming, sobriety, motorcycle usage, and speed ; were some of the largest factors in increasing the probability of a critical crash. From comparing crash trends between the two states, it ; was found that interstates are an area where fatal crashes happen more often in Wyoming. Wyoming also has more fatal crashes on ; weekends and in the summer months than North Dakota. It was found that both states are behind in the adoption of nationally ; recommended laws and that Wyoming enforcement needs more resources to effectively patrol and maintain safety on highways such as ; interstate 80. Finally, it was determined that in those counties where mining and construction industries have high levels of employment, ; crashes were more frequent and care should be taken to educate those communities on the benefits of safe driving.
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• Format:
  PDF
• Download URL:
  https://rosap.ntl.bts.gov/view/dot/27346/dot_27346_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 2.03 MB]
• Collection(s):
  US Transportation Collection
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:7fbfd43fce9e8c9dbb2948d52e98c9334b96761898e124219a3addc737d089adb2935f471f35c44ef3841d1e76dab9dc986382729b60988d0cc54fa849204d16