Clover configurator crashes drivers#
Clover configurator crashes driver#
Clover configurator crashes full#

In total, 78 percent (86 crashes) of the 110 study crashes occurred under conditions of darkness. to 6 a.m., compared with only 23 percent for other serious freeway crashes in Michigan between 20. The late-night trend was even more pronounced when the researchers examined the 35 serious wrong-way crashes: 71 percent of the fatal and incapacitating wrong-way crashes occurred during the timeframe from 11 p.m. For comparison, only 16 percent of the total Michigan freeway crashes - wrong-way entry and all others - in 2005-2009 occurred during a similar late-night time period.

Clover configurator crashes full#

Of the full 110 wrong-way crashes, a heavy concentration occurred late at night and early in the morning: 57 percent between 11 p.m.

The vast majority of these impaired-driver crashes (54 of 60) occurred at night.įor the full set of wrong-way crashes, the tendency toward night crashes held as well.

Clover configurator crashes drivers#

Looking at the remaining 101 wrong-way drivers for which the extent of impairment was known, nearly 60 percent were under the influence of either alcohol or drugs in their systems when tested: 48 tested positive for alcohol, 7 for drugs, and 5 for both drugs and alcohol.

Clover configurator crashes driver#

The 110 crashes in the study included 9 for which the extent of impairment was unknown, either because they involved drive-aways in which the wrong-way driver was not identified, or fatal crashes in which impairment, if any, of the wrong-way driver was not documented. The most noticeable characteristics of the wrong-way drivers in this study were their degree of impairment and a tendency toward late-night driving. Wrong-Way Crashes Make Horrific Headlines The Wrong-Way Driver Thus, an accurate description of the incidents researched in this study would be 'wrong-way freeway entry' crashes. The team made every effort to exclude cross-median and other crashes in which a vehicle was traveling the wrong way by virtue of the driver losing control of the vehicle. The safety researchers restricted their study to vehicles that were known or presumed to have entered the freeway system by traveling the wrong direction on an exit ramp. What they found regarding the characteristics of wrong-way drivers corroborated earlier studies, but what they found regarding the road system shed new light on the roadway engineering aspect of wrong-way freeway entries. In 20, safety staff with FHWA and the Michigan Department of Transportation (MDOT) analyzed 110 wrong-way crashes that occurred on the Michigan freeway system during the 5-year period from 2005 to 2009. For instance, a study published by the California Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration (FHWA), Prevention of Wrong-Way Accidents on Freeways (FHWA/CA-TE-89-2), found that the fatality rate was 12 times greater for wrong-way crashes compared to all other crashes on California freeways in 1987. It stands to reason that in a wrong-way head-on crash, the highest potential for injury and death occurs on the roads where drivers travel at the highest speeds: the Nation's freeways. These crashes kill or severely injure drivers and passengers at a much greater rate (per crash) than other types of freeway incidents.

This typical treatment at a Michigan freeway exit ramp includes wrong-way signing placed left and right at the mouth of the ramp, lane assignment pavement marking arrows for multilane ramps, and an optional wrong-way arrow pavement marking farther back along the ramp, at the point where the ramp neck backs down to one lane.Īcross the country, crashes caused by wrong-way drivers are few and far between, but when they do occur, they often provide fodder for terrifying and heartbreaking headlines. An innovative Michigan study sheds light on engineering strategies to curtail the number and severity of wrong-way crashes on freeways.