Roadside Fixed-Object Collisions, Barrier Performance, and Fatal Injuries in Single-Vehicle, Run-Off-Road Crashes

Objectives: To quantify the odds of fatal injuries associated with drivers involved in single-vehicle, run-off-road (SVROR), injury crashes. Methods: An in-service safety evaluation was carried out using multivariate logistic regression models. Results: The odds of motorist death was lower for w-beam guardrail crashes as compared to tree, pole, and concrete barrier crashes. On the other hand, there was no statistically significant difference between the odds of motorist death in concrete barrier crashes as compared to tree or pole crashes. The odds of motorist death were lower for curbs and collision-free crashes as compared to tree, pole, and barrier crashes. Thus, obstacles should be removed whenever possible and barriers installed only whenever absolutely necessary. The lack of vehicle containment (in barrier crashes) was found: (i) to tend to occur on higher-posted-speed-limit roads and result in a higher percentage of fatal crashes, (ii) to be more prevalent with the less rigid barrier type, and (iii) to result in a consistently higher percentage of fatal crashes under the concrete barrier category. Conclusions: Findings not only support state-of-the-art roadside design guidelines and crash-testing criteria, but they may also be useful in evaluating proposed roadside safety improvements.