Analysis of risk factors affecting driver injury and crash injury with drivers under the influence of alcohol (DUI) and non-DUI

ABSTRACT

Objective: The objective of this research was to study risk factors that significantly influence the severity of crashes for drivers both under and not under the influence of alcohol.

Methods: Ordinal logistic regression was applied to analyze a crash data set involving drivers under and not under the influence of alcohol in China from January 2011 to December 2014.

Results: Four risk factors were found to be significantly associated with the severity of driver injury, including crash partner and intersection type. Age group was found to be significantly associated with the severity of crashes involving drivers under the influence of alcohol. Crash partner, intersection type, lighting conditions, gender, and time of day were found to be significantly associated with severe driver injuries, the last of which was also significantly associated with severe crashes involving drivers not under the influence of alcohol.

Conclusions: This study found that pedestrian involvement decreases the odds of severe driver injury when a driver is under the influence of alcohol, with a relative risk of 0.05 compared to the vehicle-to-vehicle group. The odds of severe driver injury at T-intersections were higher than those for traveling along straight roads. Age was shown to be an important factor, with drivers 50–60 years of age having higher odds of being involved in severe crashes compared to 20- to 30-year-olds when the driver was under the influence of alcohol.

When the driver was not under the influence of alcohol, drivers suffered more severe injuries between midnight and early morning compared to early nighttime. The vehicle-to-motorcycle and vehicle-to-pedestrian groups experienced less severe driver injuries, and vehicle collisions with fixed objects exhibited higher odds of severe driver injury than did vehicle-to-vehicle impacts. The odds of severe driver injury at cross intersections were 0.29 compared to travel along straight roads. The odds of severe driver injury when street lighting was not available at night were 3.20 compared to daylight. The study indicated that female drivers are more likely to experience severe injury than male drivers when not under the influence of alcohol. Crashes between midnight and early morning exhibited higher odds of severe injury compared to those occurring at other times of day.

The identification of risk factors and a discussion on the odds ratio between levels of the impact of the driver injury and crash severity may benefit road safety stakeholders when developing initiatives to reduce the severity of crashes.

KEYWORDS:

• driver injury severity
• crash severity
• risk factor
• ordinal logistic regression
• odds ratio

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to Yong Chen and Bing Dai for their assistance with data management.

Funding

The project was supported by State Key Laboratory of Advanced Design and Manufacturing for Vehicle Body, National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 51405116), and Zhejiang Provincial National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. LQ14E050009).