AN IN-DEPTH STUDY OF ACCIDENTS INVOLVING COLLISIONS WITH UTILITY POLES

Abstract

This paper summarizes the objectives, methodology, findings, and recommendations of a large-scale study of automobile crashes involving utility poles. In an 8-month survey of accidents, information on site characteristics and accident severity was obtained for a sample of 879 crashes. Randomly-selected samples of 795 sites and 627 vehicles provided control information. An accident-predictor model which identifies accident risk on the basis of site measurements has been derived. The model reveals a range of relative risks in the population of exposed poles of the order of 1000:1, and enables the identification of the relatively small proportion of poles which account for the majority of accid..