2024 Volume 80 Issue 20 Article ID: 24-20057
The impact of the COVID-19 infection on traffic safety has been reported, as well as a reduction in traffic demand. However, most studies have focused on the short-term period during or immediately before and after lockdown, and studies examining the relatively long-term effects of the spread of novel coronavirus infection on traffic accidents are still limited. There are also few examples of studies that have analyzed the combination of COVID-19 infection and traffic accident factors. The purpose of this study was to understand how accident factors affected the risk of single-vehicle facility contact accidents through changes in traffic conditions due to the spread of COVID-19 infection on the Tokyo Metropolitan Expressway. The results showed that the risk of facility-contact accidents only increased with the COVID-19 infection, and the locations where accidents frequently occurred also changed. Furthermore, in addition to the existing influencing factors, it was suggested that facility-contact accidents caused by “rainfall” and “S-curves” were more likely to occur.
