New Risk Management Study Findings Have Been Reported by Investigators at University of Utah (Impact of roadway geometric features on crash severity…

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New Risk Management Study Findings Have Been Reported by Investigators at University of Utah (Impact of roadway geometric features on crash severity on rural two-lane highways)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Investigators publish new report on Risk Management. According to news originating from Salt Lake City, Utah, by VerticalNews correspondents, research stated, "This study examines the impact of a wide range of roadway geometric features on the severity outcomes of crashes occurred on rural two-lane highways. We argue that crash data have a hierarchical structure which needs to be addressed in modeling procedure."

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research from the University of Utah, "Moreover, most of previous studies ignored the impact of geometric features on crash types when developing crash severity models. We hypothesis that geometric features are more likely to determine crash type, and crash type together with other occupant, environmental and vehicle characteristics determine crash severity outcome. This paper presents an application of multilevel models to successfully capture both hierarchical structure of crash data and indirect impact of geometric features on crash severity. Using data collected in Illinois from 2007 to 2009, multilevel ordered logit model is developed to quantify the impact of geometric features and environmental conditions on crash severity outcome. Analysis results revealed that there is a significant variation in severity outcomes of crashes occurred across segments which verifies the presence of hierarchical structure. Lower risk of severe crashes is found to be associated with the presence of 10-ft lane and/or narrow shoulders, lower roadside hazard rate, higher driveway density, longer barrier length, and shorter barrier offset."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "The developed multilevel model offers greater consistency with data generating mechanism and can be utilized to evaluate safety effects of geometric design improvement projects."

For more information on this research see: Impact of roadway geometric features on crash severity on rural two-lane highways. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2018;111():34-42. Accident Analysis and Prevention can be contacted at: Pergamon-Elsevier Science Ltd, The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, England. (Elsevier - www.elsevier.com; Accident Analysis and Prevention - www.journals.elsevier.com/accident-analysis-and-prevention/)

The news correspondents report that additional information may be obtained from N. Haghighi, University of Utah, Dept. of Civil & Environm Engn, Salt Lake City, UT 84112, United States. Additional authors for this research include X.C. Liu, G.H. Zhang and R.J. Porter.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2017.11.014. This DOI is a link to an online electronic document that is either free or for purchase, and can be your direct source for a journal article and its citation.

Keywords for this news article include: Salt Lake City, Utah, United States, North and Central America, Risk Management, Risk and Prevention, University of Utah.