Factors Affecting Crash Severity among Elderly Drivers: A Multilevel Ordinal Logistic Regression Approach
Mubarak Alrumaidhi; Hesham A. Rakha
This study modeled the crash severity of elderly drivers using data from the state of Virginia, United States, for the period of 2014 through to 2021. The impact of several exogenous variables on the level of crash severity was investigated. A multilevel ordinal logistic regression model (M-OLR) was utilized to account for the spatial heterogeneity across different physical jurisdictions. The findings discussed herein indicate that the M-OLR can handle the spatial heterogeneity and lead to a better fit in comparison to a standard ordinal logistic regression model (OLR), as the likelihood-ratio statistics comparing the OLR and M-OLR models were found to be statistically significant, with p-value of <:0.001. The results showed that crashes occurring on two-way roads are likely to be more severe than those on one-way roads. Moreover, the risks for older, distracted, and/or drowsy drivers to be involved in more severe crashes escalate than undistracted and nondrowsy drivers. The data also confirmed that the consequences of crashes involving unbelted drivers are prone to be more severe than those for belted drivers and their passengers. Furthermore, the crash severity on higher-speed roads or when linked to high-speed violations is more extreme than on low-speed roads or when operating in compliance with stated speed limits. Crashes that involve animals are likely to lead to property damage only, rather than result in severe injuries. These findings provide insights into the contributing factors for crash severity among older drivers in Virginia and support better designs of Virginia road networks.
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