Exploring association of contributing factors to pedestrian fatal and severe injury crashes under dark-no-streetlight condition

Abstract

The pedestrian crash pattern in the dark-no-streetlight condition is a noteworthy ongoing traffic safety concern. The persistently high percentage of pedestrian fatalities at night in the U.S., as well as in the state of Louisiana, necessitates new research to supplement existing studies. This study utilized 10 years (2010–2019) of pedestrian fatal and severe injury crashes in Louisiana that occurred in the dark without streetlights to identify the associated crash patterns. The methodology is based on Multiple Correspondence Analysis (MCA), an exploratory approach used to discover the association of multiple categorical variables from a crash dataset. The findings suggest that driver characteristics (age, gender, and physical condition), pedestrian action, pedestrian alcohol impairment, and physical settings (posted speed limit, location, and roadway type) have a substantial impact on pedestrian collisions at night without streetlights. Moreover, the obtained combination clouds of MCA reveal associations such as elderly pedestrian (>64 years) alcohol impairment resulting in fatalities, crashes in an open country location with a high posted speed limit, crashes involving pedestrians in dark clothing on high-speed (50–55 mph) roadways, alcohol-impaired driver involvement in crashes on two-way roads without physical separation, severe injury crashes at intersections, male pedestrian crashes on midblock locations during weekends, and young (15–24 years) female driver's involvement in crashes while pedestrians were walking against the traffic. Based on the findings, this research also suggests safety recommendations that can assist highway safety practitioners in determining appropriate countermeasures to reduce pedestrian crashes in the dark-no-streetlight condition.