Spatial analysis of alcohol-related injury and fatal traffic crashes in Ohio

Date of Award

2017

Degree Name

M.S. in Civil Engineering

Department

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Engineering Mechanics

Advisor/Chair

Advisor: Deogratias Eustace

Abstract

Traffic crashes are considered alcohol-related if blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of a driver or non-motorist is 0.08 grams per deciliter (g/dl) or above. This thesis analyzed various socioeconomic factors that may influence alcohol-related fatal and injury crashes in Ohio at the county level in order to determine counties that may need heightened attention in terms of enforcement and education campaigns. This study used three years of Ohio traffic crash data at the county level from 2012 to 2014 obtained from the Ohio Department of Public Safety (ODPS). The objective of this study was to explore the use of an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression method in identifying factors affecting alcohol-related fatal and injury crashes in Ohio at the county level. This study was done by using Geographic Information System (GIS) in order to utilize its spatial capabilities. The model of alcohol-related fatal and injury traffic crashes was initially built with 15 independent variables that may affect alcohol-related traffic crashes such as population density and household income. The variables were divided into four groups namely crash response variables, road network variables, traffic variables, and socio-demographic variables. The Moran's I index for residuals was almost equal to zero demonstrating that there was little evidence of any autocorrelation between each other, then OLS model was deemed adequate in modeling the data used in the this study. After removing highly correlated variables, only four variables were found to be significantly affect the rates of alcohol-related traffic crashes at the county level at a 90% confidence level. The variables found significant include percent of males in the population in the county, percent of trucks in the vehicles registered in the county, percent of licensed drivers per population in the county, and elevation range in the county.

Keywords

Drinking and traffic accidents Research, Drinking and traffic accidents Sex differences Research Ohio, Truck accidents Research Ohio, Altitudes Accidents Ohio, Traffic accidents Research Ohio, Civil Engineering, Spatial Analysis, Alcohol-related Traffic Crashes and Ordinary Least Squares

Rights Statement

Copyright © 2017, author

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