Researchers: David Noyce (PI), Andrea Bill, Kelvin Santiago
Primary Project Objectives
This research focuses on the unfortunate trend where emergency responders and construction workers are victims of struck-by crashes. The intention of this study is to perform a crash analysis and to provide possible countermeasures to prevent these secondary incidents from occurring. Any incident that involves fire fighters, police, EMT/First Responders, tow drivers, roadway maintenance and/or construction workers; who are hit by a motorist while on duty assisting an incident or at a work zone is classified as a struck-by crash.
The purpose of this research is to collect and analyze struck-by crashes in an effort to reduce them and therefore increase safety. Struck-by data is not well tracked, and there is a lack of quantitative analysis of characteristics and contributing factors. Using WisTransPortal, initial data was retrieved to identify all on-duty struck-by crashes on Wisconsin’s State Trunk Network from 2000-2010. Roadway inventory, traffic and crash data were integrated in a GIS framework during this process. From analyzing this data, specific conditions can recognized and aid in increasing safety.
