Estimating car driver injury severity in car/tractor-trailer collisions

This paper analyzes road accidents between passenger cars and tractor-trailer rigs occurring in the greater Baltimore-Washington D.C. metropolitan area during the period 1983-84. During this time interval, approximately 1700 such collisions occurred on major highways in the state of Maryland. Traffic accident data is factor analyzed for underlying dimensions related to this accident type. A subsequent prediction analysis is made in order to discern whether injury severity estimations can be made using driver, vehicle, and environmental characteristic variables.