Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress - About

Toll Facility Safety Study Report to Congress
Table 3-8. Number of Crashes by Vehicles Involved
Number of Vehicles Involved Number of Crashes % of Injuries
1 866 21.4%
2 3,049 75.4%
3 105 2.6%
4 20 0.5%
5 1 0.0%
6 0 0.0%
7 0 0.0%
8 1 0.0%
Total 4,042
Looking at the data for a single agency (Agency 2), it is possible to analyze the locations of
crashes with respect to the toll plaza. Of 406 crash records that reported the crash location,
approximately half occurred at the plaza itself (212 or 52.2 percent). Of the remaining crashes,
151 (or 37.2 percent) occurred upstream of the plaza, and 43 (or 10.6 percent) occurred
downstream of the plaza.
Looking at the data for another single agency (Agency 7) it is possible to gain insight into the
types of crashes occurring at their facilities (representing two large plazas). These are
summarized in Table 3-9. Nearly all of the crashes were sideswipes (75.6 percent) or rear end
crashes (16.4 percent).
Table 3-9. Number of Crashes by Type (Agency 7 only)
Crash Type Number of Crashes % of Crashes
Angle Collision 125 2.4%
Backing 166 3.2%
Damaged While Parked 1 0.0%
Fixed Object 47 0.9%
Head On (Two Vehicles) 5 0.1%
Object Lying in Road 4 0.1%
Other 28 0.5%
Overtaking 2 0.0%
Pedestrian 7 0.1%
Ran Off Road 2 0.0%
Rear End 839 16.4%
Right-turn 2 0.0%
Sideswipe 3,867 75.6%
Turned Over in Road 3 0.1%
Unknown 16 0.3%
Total 5,114
3.2.2 Conclusions
Based on analysis of 10,322 crash records obtained from 7 toll agencies, it can be seen that multi
vehicle accidents are much more common than single vehicle accidents (75 percent of crashes
involved 2 vehicles, while only 21 percent involved a single vehicle). In terms of where
accidents most often occur in the vicinity of a toll plaza, only one agency provided this level of
detail in their record-keeping, but the data from this agency showed that approximately half of all
Findings – Characteristics of Accidents and Injuries Occurring at Toll Plazas Page 15