EVALUATION OF SAFETY BENEFITS OF AUTOMATIC CRASH INFORMATION NOTIFICATION SYSTEMS ON FREEWAYS

Abstract

The automatic crash information notification system (ACINS) is an effective technology to enhance thepotential for saving crash victims by reducing the crash response time (CRT) of emergency medical services. Shorter CRTresults in a greater potential to save the lives and to alleviate the severity of injuries for crash victims. To fully operate theACINS, reliable assessments of the safety benefits would be needed for justifying public investment. This study proposed amethodology for quantifying the effectiveness of the ACINS and applied the methodology to the Korean freeway system. Theproposed methodology consists of three steps. The first step is to develop a statistical model for predicting injury severity ofcrash victims using ordered logistic regression. The second step is to estimate the amount of reduced CRT by applyingACINS. The effectiveness of the ACINS, which are defined as the number of reduced fatalities and severe injuries, wereevaluated with the consideration of the market penetration rate (MPR) in third step. It has been found that approximately 9.4−15.4% of fatalities can be reduced with 100% MPR when the proposed methodology is applied to 2011 freeway crash data.

The outcomes of this study support decision making for public investments and for establishing relevant traffic safety policies.