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Abstract
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INTRODUCTION: The research described in this paper explored the factors contributing to the injury severity resulting from the male and female older driver (65 years and older) at-fault crashes at unsignalized intersections in Alabama.
METHOD: Random parameter logit models of injury severity were estimated. The estimated models identified a variety of statistically significant factors influencing the injury severities resulting from older driver at-fault crashes.
RESULTS: According to these models, some variables were found to be significant only in one model (male or female) but not in the other one. For example, variables such as driver under the influence of alcohol/drugs, horizontal curve, and stop sign were found significant only in the male model. On the other hand, variables such as intersection approaches on tangents with flat grade, and driver older than 75 years were found significant only in the female model. In addition, variables such as making turning maneuver, freeway-ramp junction, high speed approach, and so forth were found significant in both models. Estimation findings showed that two parameters in the male model and another two parameters in the female model could be modeled as random parameters, indicating their varying influences on the injury severity due to unobserved effects. In addition to the random parameter logit approach, a deep learning approach based on Artificial Neural Networks was introduced to predict the outcome of the crashes based on 164 variables that are listed in the crash database. The artificial intelligence (AI)-based method achieved an accuracy of 76% indicating the role of the variables in deciding the final outcome. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: Future plans are set to study the use of AI on large sized datasets to achieve a relatively high-performance, and hence to be able to identify which variables contribute the most to the final outcome.
Language: en |