Analyzing the continuum of fatal crashes: A generalized ordered approach

Publication date: July 2015 Source:Analytic Methods in Accident Research, Volume 7 Author(s): Shamsunnahar Yasmin , Naveen Eluru , Abdul R. Pinjari In the United States, safety researchers have focused on examining fatal crashes (involving at least one fatally injured vehicle occupant) by using Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) dataset. FARS database compiles crashes if at least one person involved in the crash dies within 30 consecutive days from the time of crash along with the exact timeline of the fatal occurrence. Previous studies using FARS dataset offer many useful insights on what factors affect crash related fatality, particularly in the context of fatal vs. non-fatal injury categorization. However, there is one aspect of fatal crashes that has received scarce attention in the traditional safety analysis. The studies that dichotomize crashes into fatal vs. non-fatal groups assume that all fatal crashes in the FARS dataset are similar. Keeping all else same, a fatal crash that results in an immediate fatality is clearly much more severe than another crash that leads to fatality after several days. Our study contributes to continuing research on fatal crashes. Specifically, rather than homogenizing all fatal crashes as the same, our study analyzes the fatal injury from a new perspective by examining fatality as a continuous spectrum based on survival time ranging from dying within 30 days of crash to dying instantly (as reported in the FARS data). The fa...
Source: Analytic Methods in Accident Research - Category: Accident Prevention Source Type: research