Rule discovery to identify patterns contributing to overrepresentation and severity of run-off-the-road crashes

The main objective of this paper was to analyse the roadway, environmental, and driver-related factors associated with an overrepresentation of frequency and severity of run-off-the-road (ROR) crashes. The data used in this study refer to the 6167 crashes occurred in the section Naples–Candela of A16 motorway, Italy in the period from 2001 to 2011. The analysis was carried out using the rule discovery technique due to its ability of extracting knowledge from large amounts of data previously unknown and indistinguishable by investigating patterns that occur together in a given event. The rules were filtered by support, confidence, lift, and validated by the lift increase criterion. A two-step analysis was carried out. In the first step, rules discovering factors contributing to ROR crashes were identified. In the second step, studying only ROR crashes, rules discovering factors contributing to severe and fatal injury (KSI) crashes were identified. As a result, 94 significant rules for ROR crashes and 129 significant rules for KSI crashes were identified. These rules represent several combinations of geometric design, roadside, barrier performance, crash dynamic, vehicle, environmental and drivers’ characteristics associated with an overrepresentation of frequency and severity of ROR crashes. From the methodological point of view, study results show that the a priori algorithm was effective in providing new information which was previously hidden in the data. Finally, several countermeasures to solve or mitigate the safety issues identified in this study were discussed. It is worthwhile to observe that the study showed a combination of factors contributing to the overrepresentation of frequency and severity of ROR crashes. Consequently, the implementation of a combination of countermeasures is recommended.