Exploring spatial associations between near-miss and police-reported crashes: The Heinrich’s law in traffic safety

Abstract

This research explores the spatial association between police-reported crashes and near-miss crashes experienced by community members using the network cross K-function method and Geographic Information Systems (GIS). The near-miss crashes were collected from a field survey conducted in Seoul, South Korea, and police-reported crashes in the study area were also collected for comparison. The results show that minor and severe police-reported crashes have statistically significant spatial associations, and near-miss and police-reported crashes also have significant associations. Thus, the Heinrich’s law, which postulates that police-reported minor and severe crashes and near-miss crashes may share underlying locational factors, has merit to apply in traffic safety. These findings indicate that road users’ near-miss crash experiences reflecting local knowledge can supplement police-reported traffic crashes to identifying crash hotspots in road networks and developing safety improvement measures and strategies.

Keywords

• Near-miss crash
• Police-reported crash
• Heinrich’s law
• Network cross K-function method