Recorded presentation

Kenneth L Campbell, Center for Transportation Analysis, Oak Ridge National Laboratory, 2360 Cherahala Boulevard, Knoxville, TN 37932, 865 946-1323, campbellkl@ornl.gov

Efforts to mitigate traffic casualties are broadly divided into injury prevention and collision prevention. Over the past 30 years, vehicle crashworthiness has improved significantly, reducing the probability of injury once a collision occurs. A critical development in injury prevention research was the adoption of probability-based sampling for the selection of crashes for investigation so that the correct population proportions were estimated for injury and non-injury collisions. The result was an objective measure of injury risk that would support multivariate statistical methods already in use in medicine to study the risk of disease. Prevention of collisions has not enjoyed comparable progress. While there are many reasons for this trend, this presentation will focus on the development of research methods to identify the factors responsible for traffic collisions. The starting point for collision prevention is understanding why collisions occur. Today, the Indiana Tri-Level Study is still referred to as the “landmark” study of accident causation—the terminology of that day. This reputation still stands despite a critical review by a select panel that included Patricia Waller. This situation has persisted because research methods have advanced little in the intervening years. That situation is about to change. Recently, advanced sensor and other information technologies have revitalized this research area. Future studies will be able to monitor objective collision risk measures second by second and relate the risk to specific driver actions and traffic events. These developments will enable a shift from reliance on “expert judgment” to a statistical analysis of objective risk measures.

Learning Objectives:

• review collision prevention research methods
• highlight the contributions of Dr. Patricia Waller

Keywords: Methodology, Data Collection

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.

Recorded presentation