A list of accident scenarios for three legs skewed intersections

Abstract

The term ‘scenario’ is used in the safety field to designate a prototype or a model of an accident process characterised by chains of facts, actions, causal relations and consequences in terms of damage to people and property. The prototypical scenarios, properly realized, provide a basis on which to consider the action to be taken, but also a concrete backup for accident information for use in information campaigns or training. The objective of this study is to define the prototypical accident scenarios for a particular configuration of road intersection: the skewed intersection. Limited sight distance at skewed intersections leads to safety issues. A non-skewed intersection provides the best operating conditions as drivers can easily sense the direction in which they are travelling, estimate the speeds of the opposing traffic and smoothly complete a maneuver in shorter time. In skewed intersections, instead, the ability of drivers to recognize any conflicting vehicles diminishes in comparison to right-angle intersections. The logical-deductive approach used in this paper for the determination of accident scenarios is based on an analysis of a large database of incidents, which occurred on several roads in eastern Sicily on 35 skewed intersections at three-legs. The skew angle of the minor leg of all the intersections studied is between 15° and 20°. This research allowed to develop accident scenarios related to particular configurations of intersections, compatible with the Italian rules. Prototypical scenarios are constructed using samples of accidents occurring on a particular type of study area, especially when they are based on files from in-depth investigations. The method used is an inductive approach, based on an examination of each case, grouping together similar cases and building a prototypical scenario using this case grouping. From the in-depth analysis of database accidents 9 prototypical accident scenarios have been identified for the skewed intersections. Keywords: Road safety, Accident scenarios, In-depth analysis, Skewed intersections, Maneuvers accident