Analysis of Driver Injury Severity for Different Work Zone Areas

Work zones are an integral part of the transportation system consisting of roadway construction, maintenance, and utility installation. In this paper the authors attempt to investigate the causal factors contributing to driver’s injury severity in the different areas composing a work zone. Considering the discrete ordinal nature of injury severity categories, the Mixed Generalized Ordered Response Probit (MGORP) modeling framework was adopted. The empirical analysis was conducted using 10 years of the Highway Safety Information System (HSIS) work zone crashes database. Elasticity analysis suggests that airbag deployment, alcohol involvement, ejection, seatbelt use, and partial control-of-access are key factors that increase likelihood of severe injuries. Also, the effects of several covariates were found to vary across different areas within the work zone.