title: Statistical Characteristics of Wrong-Way Driving Crashes on Illinois Freeways.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Driving the wrong way on freeways, namely wrong-way driving (WWD), has been found to be a major concern for more than 6 decades. The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of this type of crash as well as to rank the locations/interchanges according to their vulnerability to WWD entries.
  
  
  METHODS
  The WWD crash data on Illinois freeways were statistically analyzed for a 6-year time period (2004 to 2009) from 3 aspects: crash, vehicle, and person. The temporal distributions, geographical distributions, roadway characteristics, and crash locations were analyzed for WWD crashes. The driver demographic information, physical condition, and injury severity were analyzed for wrong-way drivers. The vehicle characteristics, vehicle operation, and collision results were analyzed for WWD vehicles. A method was brought about to identify wrong-way entry points that was then used to develop a relative-importance technique and rank different interchange types in terms of potential WWD incidents.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The findings revealed that a large proportion of WWD crashes occurred during the weekend from midnight to 5 a.m. Approximately 80% of WWD crashes were located in urban areas and nearly 70% of wrong-way vehicles were passenger cars. Approximately 58% of wrong-way drivers were driving under the influence (DUI). Of those, nearly 50% were confirmed to be impaired by alcohol, about 4% were impaired by drugs, and more than 3% had been drinking. The analysis of interchange ranking found that compressed diamond interchanges, single point diamond interchanges (SPDIs), partial cloverleaf interchanges, and freeway feeders had the highest wrong-way crash rates (wrong-way crashes per 100 interchanges per year).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The findings of this study call for more attention to WWD crashes from different aspects such as driver age group, time of day, day of week, and DUI drivers. Based on the analysis results of WWD distance, the study explained why a 5-mile radius of WWD crash location should be studied for WWD fatal crashes with unknown entry points.
authors: a Department of Civil Engineering , Auburn University , Auburn , Alabama.
authors: Huaguo
authors: H
authors: Zhou
authors: b CH2M HILL Inc. , Chicago , Illinois.
authors: Jiguang
authors: J
authors: Zhao
authors: a Department of Civil Engineering , Auburn University , Auburn , Alabama.
authors: Mahdi
authors: M
authors: Pour-Rouholamin
authors: c Illinois Department of Transportation , Bureau of Safety Engineering , Springfield , Illinois.
authors: Priscilla A
authors: PA
authors: Tobias
mesh_terms: D000063:Accidents, Traffic / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D000368:Aged; D000428:Alcohol Drinking / Q000453:epidemiology; D001334:Automobile Driving / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D016208:Databases, Factual; D000066448:Driving Under the Influence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004779:Environment Design / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007087:Illinois / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: crashes; entry points; interchanges; statistical characteristics; wrong-way driving