Recent Findings in Risk Management Described by Y.T. Zou and Colleagues (Barrier-relevant crash modification factors and average costs of crashes on…

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Recent Findings in Risk Management Described by Y.T. Zou and Colleagues (Barrier-relevant crash modification factors and average costs of crashes on arterial roads in Indiana)

By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Insurance Weekly News -- Researchers detail new data in Risk Management. According to news reporting out of Red Bank, New Jersey, by VerticalNews editors, research stated, "The objective of this study was to develop crash modification factors (CMFs) and estimate the average crash costs applicable to a wide range of road-barrier scenarios that involved three types of road barriers (concrete barriers, W-beam guardrails, and high-tension cable barriers) to produce a suitable basis for comparing barrier-oriented design alternatives and road improvements. The intention was to perform the most comprehensive and in-depth analysis allowed by the cross-sectional method and the crash data available in Indiana."

Financial support for this research came from Federal Highway Administration and the Indiana Department of Transportation.

Our news journalists obtained a quote from the research, "To accomplish this objective and to use the available data efficiently, the effects of barrier were estimated on the frequency of barrier-relevant (BR) crashes, the types of harmful events and their occurrence during a BR crash, and the severity of BR crash outcomes. The harmful events component added depth to the analysis by connecting the crash onset with its outcome. Further improvement of the analysis was accomplished by considering the crash outcome severity of all the individuals involved in a crash and not just drivers, utilizing hospital data, and pairing the observations with and without road barriers along same or similar road segments to better control the unobserved heterogeneity. This study confirmed that the total number of BR crashes tended to be higher where medians had installed barriers, mainly due to collisions with barriers and, in some cases, with other vehicles after redirecting vehicles back to traffic. These undesirable effects of barriers were surpassed by the positive results of reducing cross median crashes, rollover events, and collisions with roadside hazards. The average cost of a crash (unit cost) was reduced by 50% with cable barriers installed in medians wider than 50 ft. A similar effect was concluded for concrete barriers and guardrails installed in medians narrower than 50 ft. The studied roadside guardrails also reduced the unit cost by 20%-30%. Median cable barriers were found to be the most effective among all the studied barriers due to the smaller increase in the crash frequency caused by these barriers and the less severe injury outcomes. More specifically, the occupants of vehicles colliding with near-side cable barriers tended to have less severe injuries than occupants of vehicles entering the median from median's farther side. The near-side cable barriers provided protection against rollover inside the median and against a potentially dangerous collision with or running over the median drain; therefore, the greatest safety benefit can be expected where cable barriers are installed at both edges of the median."

According to the news editors, the research concluded: "The CMFs and unit crash costs for 48 road-barrier scenarios produced in this study are included in this paper."

For more information on this research see: Barrier-relevant crash modification factors and average costs of crashes on arterial roads in Indiana. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 2018;111():71-85. 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/)

Our news journalists report that additional information may be obtained by contacting Y.T. Zou, Plymouth Rock Management Co New Jersey, Red Bank, NJ 07701, United States.

The direct object identifier (DOI) for that additional information is: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2017.11.020. 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: Red Bank, New Jersey, United States, North and Central America, Risk Management.