Collision Introduction R001 - 09 Jan 2014 - Version 001 05-45

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LONDON SOUTH BANK UNIVERSITY

MODULE: EUB _7_430

SAFETY, SURVEY TECHNIQUESAND QUANTITATIVE METHODS

COURSE WORK - 04 :COLLISION ANALYSIS AT JUNCTION

OF BOROUGH HIGH STREET AND ST THOMAS STREET

MODULE LEADER : DR. AMER ALI

LECTURER : MR. MAHESH DHAKAL

DATE OF SUBMISSION : 16 th December 2013

STUDENT NAME : BABER BEGSTUDENT No. : 3301044



Contents

INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 1

BACKGROUND ......................................................................................................................................... 3

COLLISION ANALYSIS ............................................................................................................................... 5

COLLISION LOCATIONS ............................................................................................................................ 6

CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS ....................................................................................................................... 7

CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................................................................................... 9

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...................................................................................................................................... 10



Collision Analysis at junction of Borough High Street and St Thomas Streetby Baber BegLSBU Student No: 3301044 Page 1

INTRODUCTION

A traffic collision, also known as a traffic accident, motor vehicle collision, motor vehicle

accident, car accident, automobile accident, road traffic collision, road traffic accident,

wreck (USA), car crash, or car smash (Australian) occurs when a vehicle collides with another

vehicle, pedestrian, animal, road debris, or other stationary obstruction, such as a tree or

utility pole. Traffic collisions may result in injury, death, vehicle damage, and property

damage.

A number of factors contribute to the risk of collision, including vehicle design, speed of

operation, road design, road environment, driver skill and/or impairment, and driver

behaviour. Collision data present detailed statistics about the circumstances of personal

injury accidents, including the where the collision occurred, the types of vehicles involved,

the resulting casualties, weather conditions, road type, date, time and other contributory

factors which may contribute to collisions happening. The statistics on collisions are based

on information about accidents reported to the police (using ‘STATS 19’ forms) in the UK.

However, not all non-fatal collisions are reported to the police. The best current estimate is

that the total number of road casualties in Great Britain, including those not reported to

police, is within the range 660 thousand to 800 thousand with a central estimate of 730

thousand. These figures are based on 2011 dataset which is due to be updated for 2013. i

There is a social-economic cost to the community due to the collision which results from a

loss in output due to injury, calculated as the value of expected earnings, costs of hospital

treatment and human costs. The latter representing grief and suffering to the casualty,

relatives and friends that can be heightened when a fatality arises as a direct result of a

collision.

The various figures, such as number of casualties, locations and type of collisions, obtainedfor the current year are then compared over the records for the previous years to

determine trends and interventions that can be applied to reduce the number of collisions.

The Mayor of London has set a target reduction in the number of collisions to be reduced

overall by 40%. Generally the trend over the last few years has seen a reduction, however,

due to the recent spate of cyclist fatalities with thirteen killed over a two week period, this

will cause a variation in the annual figures. There is always an increase or decrease observed




in the annual figures, but this must be reviewed over a longer period to identify any trends

in the data.

On a site with a high collision record, intervention methods to reduce the number of

collisions are taken into consideration. This is done by reviewing the causation/contributoryfactors for that particular site. These will be indicative of the measures to be taken at a

particular site.

This brief study will look into a junction in the London Borough of Southwark and discuss

various improvements that could possibly be implemented to reduce the number of

collisions at this particular junction.




BACKGROUND

The collision data that has been used for the purpose of this analysis is that provided by TfL

for the London Borough of Southwark for the 36 month period to December 2012. This data

covers nearly three thousand collisions over the past three years. However, for the purpose

of this report data has been extracted for a single junction to be analysed.

The junction of Borough High Street junction with St Thomas Street and Bedale Street.

There have been 22 collisions at this junction (see Appendix A showing the interpreted

listings ii highlighted for the collisions being investigated in this report).

Figure 1: Showing Borough High Street junctions with Bedale Street and St Thomas Street.

Traffic flows through this junction are heavy, with a large number of buses flowing north

and southbound throughout the day. Due to the existing refurbishment works at London

Bridge Station, there are heavy vehicles also traversing through the junction. The signalised

junction allows controlled movement through the junction and reduces the conflict

between different vehicle movements within the available road space. iii However, this has

not completely eliminated human error, which can occur due to the driver being in a hurry,

tired at the end of a long day, not looking properly or inadvertently putting his foot down to

trying to beat the changing traffic signals.




Photo 1: Looking southbound at the junction of Borough High Street with St Thomas Street andBedale Street.

Photo 1 above shows the busy junction. St Thomas Street is next to Barclays Bank, Bedale street ison the right hand side.

The traffic signals although green show people still utilising the crossing in between large

gaps in the traffic. Pedestrians can be seen crossing the road near the furthest set of lights

shown in the above photo, where there is no crossing provided (circled in red). The

pedestrians are posing a risk not only to themselves but to the traffic moving along Borough

High Street.




COLLISION ANALYSIS

Once the location for the study has been chosen the next step in the process is to plot the

collisions on to a plan. Normally this is done on OS plan as co-ordinates have been provided

to the approximate locations of where the collisions have occurred.

Next we look at the plots and try to see if there are any clusters of collisions. This is

indicative that there maybe some common underlying factor resulting in the number of

collisions. An in-depth review of the contributory factors is undertaken to determine the

common causes of the collisions.

A site visit is also undertaken to observe and assess the movement of the both pedestrian

and vehicular traffic. This provides the investigator with an idea of the possible intervention

measures that could be introduced to reduce the number of collisions for the site to make it

safer for all road users.

The data for the collisions being investigated was entered into an excel spreadsheet. Macros

were then run to produce the outputs shown in Appendix B which shows a summary of the

data including the contributory factors, and Appendix C showing the graphs to enable

identifying the trends over the time period. Appendix D shows the stick diagrams showing

where the collisions occurred.

There are 22 collisions at the junction over a three year period. This equates to 7.33

collisions per year. The data is represented graphically to try and identify any trends. The

highest proportion of collisions occurred in 2011 with 11 collisions, this represents a 175%

increase on the previous year where there were only 4 collisions. However, as shown in the

timeline graph in Appendix C, the collisions are reduced the following year. There is no

distinctive trend observed.

Further analysis of the data by month of the year, as shown on the graph ( Appendix C) thatthe majority of collisions have occurred in the month of June.

Analysis of the data by day of the week shows that the majority of the collisions have occurred on a

Monday as shown in Appendix C. This could be due to number of reasons one of which could be that

due to people rushing to get to work on a Monday.

Collisions by time of day, is shown in Appendix C. It can be observed that the majority of the

collisions took place during the morning peak and mid-day peak.




Four of the collisions occurred in the dark and only one of these was serious. There are three

collisions observed in wet conditions none which resulted in a serious casualty.

There are a number of common intervention measures, as shown in Appendix E iv, which can be used

to reduce the number of collisions. Options are presented along with costs for implementation of

the measures and presented to the local highway authority to determine which of the options from

the feasibility study to implement.

COLLISION LOCATIONS

The collision data is recorded by the Police on a STATS 19 form in great detail. However, on

occasions, some anomalies are recorded, such as the co-ordinates. For instance, when we

look at the collision for 0112MM70339 which happened at 13:15 on 10th

April 2012, the co-ordinates show that the collision occurs inside the public house next door to a bank. This for

obvious reasons cannot be the exact location of the collision. A decision has to be made by

the analyst to determine the nearest location where the collision could possibly occur. It

should be noted on occasion the co-ordinate locations are on the footway, rather than the

actual carriageway where the collision has occurred.




CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS

For any one collision that occurs there are a number of factors which can contribute to the collision.

The table shown in Appendix B summarises the contributory factors involved. This shows that the

highest contributory factor involved in the collisions under analysis is that the driver/rider failed to

look properly. Table 1 shows the percentage of occurrence of each of the contributory factors

involved in the collisions.

CONTRIBUTORY FACTORNo of

OCCURENCES%

Failed to look properly (Driver/Rider) 10 45%Poor turn or manoeuvre 9 41%

Failed to judge other person's path or speed (Driver/Rider) 7 32%Failed to look properly (Ped) 5 23%Loss of control 4 18%Careless / reckless / in a hurry (Driver/Rider) 4 18%Failed to judge vehicles path or speed (Ped) 4 18%Passing to close to cyclist, horse rider or pedestrian 3 14%Sudden braking 2 9%Swerved 2 9%Vision affected - stationery or parked vehicle(s) 2 9%Wrong use of pedestrian crossing facility (Ped) 2 9%Careless / reckless / in a hurry (Ped) 2 9%Animal or object in carriageway 1 5%Disobeyed automatic traffic signal 1 5%Exceeding speed limit 1 5%Junction restart 1 5%Distraction outside vehicle 1 5%Vision affected - vehicle blind spot 1 5%Crossed road masked by stationary or parked vehicle (Ped) 1 5%Other factor 1 5%

Table 1: Showing the contributory factors involved in the collisions

The table is ranked in descending order showing the main contributory factor at the top. From the

table it can be seen that the three main causes are down to the driver/rider. However, it should be

noted that none of the contributory factors take the environment into consideration. From the

photograph it can be observed that the junction is extremely busy. Any intervention measures

suggested should take this into consideration, as the driver/rider has to make rapid decisions




traversing the junction including keeping control of the vehicle, and awareness of any movements by

pedestrians attempting to cross the road other than at the crossing points provided.




CONCLUSIONS

There are a number of interventions which could be made to improve the safety for all road

users. These would include the following:

Refresh antiskid – this would assist vehicles in stopping safely at the junction.

Introduction of cycle lanes – this would reduce the available road width for motor

vehicles, however, would greatly assist cyclists who frequently vie with motorised

road users for the limited road width available. This would include the use of

advance stop lines (ASLs). However, prior to implementing this we would need to

carry out a Road Safety Audit to review the design.

Make junction a yellow box junction. When the signals change to allow the various

movements through the junction. Vehicles could only utilise the junction if they were

able to complete the manoeuvre within the allotted timeframe.

Adjust signal timing to vary according to demand throughout the day. The most

commonly used system in the UK is Split Cycle Offset Optimisation Technique

(SCOOT).

Provide backing boards to enhance the visibility of the signal both during throughoutthe day. This would increase the driver/rider awareness of the environment and

reduce the number of collisions where the motorists failed to look properly.

An independent Road Safety Audit (RSA) would need to be carried out on any suggested

improvements to ensure that the designer of the scheme has considered all aspects of the

scheme. If the RSA has made recommendations then these are either accepted or rejected

by the design team in the form of an acceptance report. This then has to be signed off by

the local authority or the Client who has issued instructions for the RSA to be carried out.

Only once this has been done, can the recommendations suggested by the auditors be

implemented within the design.




BIBLIOGRAPHY

i Reported Road Casualties Great Britain 2011. Published September 2012ii Collision data courtesy of TfL, and London Borough of Southwark.iii TD 50/04 The Geometric layout of signal-controlled junctions and signalised Roundabouts, November 2004iv Intervention measures compiled by B.A. Beg, 2008

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