Exploring the Factors Affecting the Injury Severity of Crashes on Mountainous Freeways with High Proportions of Heavy Vehicles Considering Their Heterogeneous and Interactive Effects

Keqiang Sun, Yongquan Li, Qiang Zeng () and Xiaofei Wang ()
Additional contact information
Keqiang Sun: Guangdong Road and Bridge Construction Development Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510660, China
Yongquan Li: Guangdong Road and Bridge Construction Development Co., Ltd., Guangzhou 510660, China
Qiang Zeng: School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China
Xiaofei Wang: School of Civil Engineering and Transportation, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510641, China

Sustainability, 2025, vol. 17, issue 4, 1-13

Abstract: Freeway transportation safety issues have attracted public concern in China for decades. This study aims to identify the factors influencing the injury severity of freeway crashes and to quantify their effects on the likelihood of various crash severity levels, with consideration of heterogeneity and interactions. The empirical analysis is based on three years of crash data from two mountainous freeways in Guangdong, China, covering the years of 2021 to 2023. A random parameters logit model with interaction terms is developed for the analysis. Goodness-of-fit indicators reveal that accommodating the interactive effects can significantly improve model fit performance. The estimation results of the parameters and marginal effects indicate that the factors related to vehicle type, time of day, crash season and cause, 3D curvature, and traffic volume have significant effects on crash severity. Notably, interactive effects are revealed between spring and evening, autumn and fixed objects, and non-local vehicles and improper driving. According to the findings, some countermeasures on safety education, traffic management, and freeway design are provided for preventing freeway crash injury, which is helpful for the development of sustainable transportation systems.

Keywords: sustainable transportation; freeway crash; injury severity; interactive effect; random parameters logit model (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1624/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/17/4/1624/ (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:17:y:2025:i:4:p:1624-:d:1592154

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 ().