Analyzing Risk Factors for Fatality in Urban Traffic Crashes: A Case Study of Wuhan, China

How to maintain public transit safety and sustainability has become a major concern for the department of Road Traffic Administration. This study aims to analyze the risk factors that contribute to fatality in road traffic crashes using a 5-year police-reported dataset from the Wuhan Traffic Management Bureau. Four types of variables, including driving experience, environmental factor, roadway factor and crash characteristic, were examined in this research by a case-control study. To obtain a comprehensive understanding of crash fatality, this study explored a detailed set of injury-severity risk factors such as impact direction, light and weather conditions, crash characteristic, driving experience and high-risk driving behavior. Based on the results of statistical analyses, fatality risk of crash-involved individuals was significantly associated with driving experience, season, light condition, road type, crash type, impact direction, and high-risk driving behavior. This study succeeded in identifying the risk factors for fatality of crash-involved individuals using a police-reported dataset, which could provide reliable information for implementing remedial measures and improving sustainability in urban road network. A more detailed list of explanatory variables could enhance the accountability of the analysis.