Additional Characteristics of Crashes on Rural Two-Lane Highways (0-4048-3)

This report provides information on year 2 activities for TxDOT Project 0-4048 including: characteristics of animal crashes and potential treatments; additional insight into characteristics of crashes on low-volume, rural two-lane highways using information provided by officers in their crash narratives; a methodology for conducting before-and-after studies; and findings for before-and-after evaluations performed at four sites. Approximately 3800 animal crashes occurred on Texas on-system, rural highways in 1999. Animal crashes are most likely to occur at night; are more common during October, November, and December; and usually involve deer or cows. A study in four selected Texas counties revealed driver inattention was a factor in 25 percent of all crashes. Other predominant factors were failure to control speed, failure to yield right-of-way, unsafe speeding, and faulty evasive action. The before-and-after methodology used in this project involves a 16-step process in which researchers gathered, reduced, and analyzed information on site characteristics, crash and volume history, and improvement details. The success of this process is dependent on a variety of individuals such as researchers, survey respondents, record keepers, and their respective staffs. Before-and-after evaluations performed at four sites with improvements produced mixed results on definitive measures of effectiveness. Some improvements appeared to be effective at reducing crashes, while others had too few crashes or too little traffic volume (or both) during the study period to make a conclusive determination.