Severity Analysis of Multi-Truck Crashes on Mountain Freeways Using a Mixed Logit Model

Zheng Chen (), Huiying Wen (), Qiang Zhu and Sheng Zhao
Additional contact information
Zheng Chen: School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Huiying Wen: School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Qiang Zhu: Guangzhou City District Transportation Project Management Center, Guangzhou 510030, China
Sheng Zhao: School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China

Sustainability, 2023, vol. 15, issue 8, 1-15

Abstract: Many studies have analyzed the road characteristics that affect the severity of truck crashes. However, most of these studies have only examined road alignment or grade separately, without considering their combined effects. The purpose of this article is to address this gap in the literature. Our study uses truck crash data from 2015 to 2019 on freeways in the Yunnan Province of China, where the severity levels of the crashes were determined by taking into account economic loss and the number of injuries and fatalities. Our study develops three models to examine the severity of truck crashes: a multinomial logit model, a mixed logit model, and a generalized ordered logit model. The findings suggest that the mixed logit model, which can suffer from unobserved heterogeneity, is more suitable because of the higher pseudo-R-squared ( ρ 2 ) value and lower Akaike Information Criterion and Bayesian Information Criterion. The estimation results show that the combination of curve and slope significantly increases the severity of truck crashes compared to curves and slopes alone. In addition, risk factors such as crash type, vehicle type, surface condition, time of day, pavement structure, and guardrails have a significant impact on the severity of truck crashes on mountainous freeways. Based on these findings, we developed policy recommendations for reducing the severity of multi-truck collisions on mountainous highways and improving transport sustainability. For example, if possible, the combination of curve and slope should be avoided. Additionally, it is recommended that trucks use tires with good heat resistance.

Keywords: injury severity; truck crashes; mountain freeways; curved slope combination; mixed logit (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6499/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/15/8/6499/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:15:y:2023:i:8:p:6499-:d:1121027

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().