Identifying Human Factors and Other Characteristics that Contribute to Injury Severity in Single-Vehicle Four-Wheeler Crashes in Tamilnadu, India

Single-vehicle crashes are of major concern in developed and developing nations due to the severity of injuries. According to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH, 2018) report, a total of 4,67,044 accidents have been reported by the states and union territories in which have claimed 1,51,417 lives. However, a clearer picture of single-vehicle crashes is unavailable. The present study's objective is to obtain a more precise understanding concerning the injury severity of the out-of-control single-vehicle four-wheeler crashes with the drivers being at fault. Contributory factors, including driver, roadway, and environmental characteristics, are investigated and discussed. The crash dataset for the present study was prepared from the police-reported single-vehicle crashes for the past nine years that occurred within Tamilnadu. The research team retrieved all the single-vehicle out-of-control four-wheeler crashes for the period between 2009 and 2017. To deal with that of the ordered categorical variable, ordinal logistic regression analysis was carried out. The brant test was carried out to check for the proportional odds assumption being valid or not. Younger and working-age group drivers, violation of rules, number of lanes, median separators, highways, and village roads were significantly associated with increased crash severity. Based on the above results’ findings, targeted countermeasures may be designed in light of the driver’s injury severity. For example, drivers who violate the law are prone to more severe injuries; awareness to strictly avoid such behaviors and strict law enforcement is need of the hour in those crashes.