Investigation of winter weather crash injury severity using winter storm classification techniques

The reported crashes typically occurred with relatively low snowfall amounts due to residual snowfall on the ground, emphasizing the importance of continuing winter maintenance operations activities and public service announcements long after a storm has passed through the region. Modeling crash injury severity revealed that icy pavements, higher duration of snowfall, work zones, and higher number of trucks and buses involved in a crash were linked to higher injury severity; higher visibility was associated with a greater chance of crashes involving visible injuries but a lower likelihood of crashes involving disabling injury/fatality.

Snowfall was associated with more visible injury crashes, whereas snow-depth was linked to fewer visible injury and disabling injury/fatality crashes. The study ' s limitations include the spatial and temporal aggregation of weather data and a lack of detailed winter roadway maintenance/clearance activity data.