Analysis on distribution of freeway accidents under various conditions in China

This study aims to provide a current survey on the situation of freeway accidents in China. The results show that the accident rate, death toll, injury toll, and direct loss of property are 3.2, 8.4, 7.2, and 24.3 times that of the average for an ordinary highway in China. Freeway accidents occur mainly in Southern (20.77%) and Central (20.2%) China. With detailed data from Guangdong Province, the number of accidents in freeways with 80 km/h design speed (29.58/km/103 pcu) was more than three times that in freeways with design speed of 100 km/h (9.54/km/103 pcu) and 120 km/h (9.42/km/103 pcu). The total accident rate increased monotonously with the decrease in horizontal radius. The results indicate that 54.54% (/km/103 pcu) of accidents occurred on a steep slope (4%–5%), representing about 10 times that of 3%–4% slope and 20 times that of the less than 3% slope. Based on the data, the safety situation of China’s highway transportation is obviously grim, and improving freeway heavy traffic management in economically developed regions, strengthening the safeguarding of mountain freeways, applying small radius and large vertical grade with caution, and developing a monitoring system of tunnels and interchanges could be used as effective measures to prevent freeway accidents.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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