Analyzing the impact of curve and slope on multi-vehicle truck crash severity on mountainous freeways

Many studies examine the road characteristics that impact the severity of truck crash accidents. However, some only analyze the effect of curves or slopes separately, ignoring their combination. Therefore, there are nine types of the combination of curve and slope in this study. The combination of curve and slope factor that affected the injury severity of truck crashes on mountainous freeways was examined using a correlated random parameter logit model. This method is applied to evaluate the correlation between the random parameters and those that exhibit unobserved heterogeneity. Also, the multinomial logit model and traditional random parameter logit model are used. The study's data were collected from multi-vehicle truck crashes on mountainous freeways in China. The results showed that the correlated random parameters logit model was better than the others. In addition, they demonstrated a correlation between the random parameters. Based on the estimation coefficients and marginal effects, the combination of curve and slope has a great influence on the injury severity of truck crashes. The main finding is that curve with medium radius and medium slope will significantly increase the probability of medium severity comparing to curve with high radius and flat slope. On the other hand, the injury severity of truck accidents was significantly impacted by crash type, vehicle type, surface condition, time of day, season, lighting condition, pavement type, and guardrail. Variables such as sideswipe, head-on, medium trucks, morning, dawn or dusk and summertime reduced the probability of truck crashes. Rollover, winter, gravel, and guardrail variables increased the risk of truck crashes. Correlations were also discovered between a rollover and dry surface condition and rollover and gravel pavement type. The research findings will help traffic officials determine effective countermeasures to decrease the severity of truck crashes on mountainous freeways.