Injury Outcomes and Costs for Work Zone Crashes

The main objective of this research was to quantify the injury outcomes and develop reliable and comprehensive injury costs for work zone crashes based on crash type (rear-end, head-on, etc.) and crash severity, based on the KABCO scale (K, killed; A, incapacitating injury; B, nonincapacitating injury; C, possible injury; O, property damage only). A three-step methodology was used to quantify the comprehensive crash costs. All crashes in Wisconsin between 2001 and 2010 that were marked with a construction zone flag were identified and used in this analysis. The Wisconsin Crash Outcome Data Evaluation System database provided comprehensive injury costs based on the injury types and severities suffered by participants in study crashes. KABCO and maximum abbreviated injury score ratings were similar for property damage only and possible injuries. A vast majority of individuals with injuries classified as nonincapacitating and incapacitating actually sustained minor or moderate injuries only. This outcome suggests that the use of KABCO needs to be reconsidered. The calculated comprehensive costs for crash types with sufficient sample sizes were found to be up to 105%, 35%, and 50% larger than the default FHWA values for incapacitating, nonincapacitating, and possible injury crashes, respectively. Injury crash costs by crash type varied significantly. This variance indicates that developing crash-specific costs might result in more accurate benefit-cost analysis for the implementation of countermeasures.