Investigating Contributors to Hit-and-Run Violations in Urban River-Crossing Road Tunnels: A Random Parameter Logit Model With Heterogeneity in Means

Abstract

The hit-and-run caused a delay in medical assistance to the victim and posed a significant threat to the safety of drivers in road tunnels. This study investigates the potential factors contributing to drivers’ hit-and-run violations in river-crossing tunnels. This paper built three models (the logit model, the random parameter logit model, and the random parameter logit model with heterogeneity in means) based on a dataset consisting of crashes reported in thirteen river-crossing tunnels in Shanghai, China. Potential contributors from five aspects (offending drivers, vehicle conditions, tunnel characteristics, environmental conditions, and crash information) were explored. Results showed that the random parameter logit model with heterogeneity in means produced the highest fitting accuracy among the three models. Eight important variables (nighttime, single-vehicle, multi-vehicle, two-wheeled vehicle, passenger car, heavy goods vehicle, rear-end, and short tunnel) were found to affect hit-and-run violations significantly. The research has highlighted that nighttime and short tunnel increase the likelihood of hit-and-run and other variables are the opposite. The results of this study could provide useful information for the development of interventions to improve the level of safety in tunnels and reduce the rate of hit-and-run offenses.