Diagnostic analysis of environmental factors affecting the severity of traffic crashes: From the perspective of pedestrian–vehicle and vehicle–vehicle collisions

Objectives: Traffic crashes under low-visibility conditions are frequent and serious. The aim of this study was to investigate how the road environment affects the severity of pedestrian–vehicle and vehicle–vehicle collisions under low-visibility conditions. Methods: The injury severity of pedestrian–vehicle collisions and vehicle–vehicle collisions under low-visibility conditions was set as the dependent variable and divided into 2 categories: “killed or severe injury collision” and “slight injury collision.” Ten variables, including environment conditions, road traffic facility status, collision characteristics, and road attributes, were selected as independent factors according to the existing research and the traffic collision data set. Based on 656 valid pedestrian–vehicle collisions and 1,430 valid vehicle–vehicle collisions under low-visibility conditions, 2 random parameter logit models were established to evaluate the impacts of influencing factors on the severity of pedestrian–vehicle collisions and vehicle–vehicle collisions, in which the effect of unobserved heterogeneity was accounted for. Results: The results show that visibility, presence of a roadside protection, road type, road pavement condition, and road alignment were significant factors affecting the severity of pedestrian–vehicle collisions. In addition, the presence of a median divider, location of the collision, road type, road surface condition, road pavement condition, and road alignment were significant factors affecting the severity of vehicle–vehicle collisions. Furthermore, the injury severity of both pedestrian–vehicle collisions and vehicle–vehicle collisions under low-visibility conditions on highways, poor road pavement, and non-straight-line sections was more likely to be fatal or serious. Conclusion: These results have implications for the design of more effective strategies to reduce casualties from traffic crashes under low-visibility conditions.