Examining Drivers’ Injury Severity of Two-Vehicle Crashes between Passenger Cars and Trucks Considering Vehicle Types

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the important factors affecting the driver`s injury severity of two-vehicle crashes between passenger cars (PCRs) and trucks (TRs) considering vehicle types. 5,579 crash data of PCRs with light motor trucks (LMTRs) and 5,287 crash data of PCRs with ordinary motor trucks (OMTRs) collected in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan are used as the research sample. The drivers’ injury severity of PCRs with LMTRs and that of PCRs with OMTRs are modeled by two bivariate ordered probit models, respectively. Each ordered probit model in a bivariate ordered probit model measures the injury severity of one driver, and the covariance measures the correlation of injury severity. The major findings suggest: 1) that time of day, location, traffic condition, manner of collision and road type have different effects for two types of crashes; 2) that weather condition and age of drivers have similar effects for two types of crashes; 3) that the injury severity of two drivers involved in two types of vehicle crashes are negatively correlated, since two crash patterns i.e. no injury with minor injury and minor injury with no injury accounted for large ratios inside two types of crashes, which indicated that there is only one driver injured in most vehicle crashes of PCRs with TRs.