Abstract
This study investigates the road geometry factors and the seasonal factors associated with head-on collisions and single vehicle collisions occurred in Hokkaido, Japan. Head-on collisions represent about 20% of all traffic collisions on the rural two lane national roads however; head-on collisions were responsible for about 40% of the fatal collisions. We developed a segmented accident database based on Traffic Accident Analysis System (TAAS) produced by Civil Engineering Research Institute for Cold Region Hokkaido. Analysis using Poisson-regression models showed that road geometry factors and seasonal factors were important factors correlated with head-on collisions. The model proposed in this study is potentially capable of identifying the causal factors of head-on and single vehicle collisions. In addition, the model might be used as the safety evaluation function in the development of the before-after study.
