Spatial Characteristics and Factors of Truck Accidents

Identifying the causes of truck accidents is very important for efficient traffic safety policies. Thus, previous studies have dealt with human factors, vehicle factors, and environmental factors (road, weather). However, according to a recent research, the spatial characteristics of truck accidents must be considered when analyzing the causes of traffic accidents. Therefore, this study has intended to analyze the spatial characteristics of truck accidents and to derive the spatial factors that would affect traffic accidents. To meet the objectives, this study employed Getis-Ord Gi* Hotspot analysis and Local Score statistics, and set three hypotheses as follows: First, truck accidents show local clustering distribution; Second, individual factories significantly affect truck accidents more than the planned factories; and, Third, the old factories significantly affect truck accidents more than the non-old factories. As a result of testing the hypotheses, this study has found that truck accidents tend to cluster locally, and factories negatively affect truck accidents. Especially, old individual location factories very negatively affect truck accidents.