While not accounting for a significant proportion of overall crashes, median crossover crashes generally do account for a significant proportion ofinterstate fatalities. When addressing the specific location of median crossover crashes, previous research has noted that median crossover crashesappear to increase in the vicinity of interchanges. Due to the seriousness of median crossover crashes and the desire to identify trends in Utah, the need existed to evaluate the impact of median crossover crashes and to determine if median crossover crashes do increase in the vicinity of interchanges. The purpose of this research, therefore, was to determine the role that the interchanges play in contributing to median crossover crashes. To address the purpose and need, 14 years of crash data spanning the years1992 through 2005 on Interstates 15, 70, 80, 84, and 215 in Utah were used to determine overall characteristics of median crossover crashes and therelationship between median crossover crashes and other types of crashes.Using a chi-square goodness of fit test, the distributions of median crossover crashes and all types of interstate crashes in the vicinity of interchanges were compared. This analysis showed that 90 percent of rural median crossover crashes occur within 3.0 miles of an interchange, and 90 percent of urban median crashes occur within 1.0 mile of an interchange. Furthermore, rural median crossover crashes occur in generally the same distribution around the interchange as all types of crashes, while urban median crossover crashes tend to take place further from the interchange.
Abstract