STATISTICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF WRONG-WAY DRIVING CRASHES ON ILLINOIS FREEWAYS

摘要

This study collected and analyzed the wrong-way crashes data for a six-year time period, from2004 to 2009, on Illinois freeways. The objective of the study was to characterize the statisticalcharacteristics of wrong-way crashes from these three aspects: crash, vehicle, and person. Thetemporal distributions, geographical distribution, roadway characteristics, and crashcharacteristics were analyzed for wrong-way crashes. The wrong-way driver demographicinformation, driver physical condition, and driver injury severity were analyzed for wrong-waydrivers. The vehicle characteristics, vehicle operation, and collision results were analyzed forwrong-way driving vehicles. General statistical characteristics of wrong-way crashes wereanalyzed, and the findings revealed that a large proportion of wrong-way crashes occurred duringthe weekend from midnight to 5 a.m. Approximately 80 percent of wrong-way crashes werelocated in urban areas. Nearly 70 percent of wrong-way vehicles were passenger cars.Approximately 60% of wrong-way drivers were driving under the influence (DUI). Of those,nearly 50% were confirmed to be impaired by alcohol, about 5% were impaired by drugs, andmore than 3% had been drinking. Wrong-way entry points were analyzed for differentinterchange types as well. Compressed diamond interchanges, SPUI, partial cloverleafinterchanges, and freeway feeders had the highest wrong-way crash rates (wrong-way crashesper 100 interchanges per year). The contribution of this study was a new method to predict thepossible wrong-way entry points and rank the high-frequency crash locations for field reviewsbased on the number of recorded or estimated wrong-way freeway entries.