Impacts of accident severity factors and loss values of crashes on expressways in Thailand

Abstract

The number of road accidents and the level of accident severity have been extensively applied as the indicators for measuring the efficiency of service provision in road network systems of each country. This research utilized accident data on expressway networks during B.E.2550 (2007) to B.E.2553 (2010) (updated data was collected), in which Expressway Authority of Thailand (EXAT) as legislatively mandated unit has taken responsibility for the execution of nine expressway routes covering distances totaling over 207. km with a record of 2194 crashes. The chief objective of the study aims to forecast the accident severity through formulating Multiple Logistic Regression Model to analyze the probability of injury accident and fatal accident in comparison with property damage only accident. Its measurement comprehensively considers statistical relationship among variables such as average speed on road section, average traffic volume per day, period of time, weather conditions, physical characteristics of accident area, and causes of accident. Together, the research question is to verify whether these variables affect the opportunity or probability of three levels of accidents and investigate impacts of accident loss values due to the reduction in crash severity measures. © 2013 International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences.