Investigating the relationship between road geometry and severe bus accidents in Brazil
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.34117/bjdv9n1-065Keywords:
road geometry, bus, road accident, Umbrella Handle ModelAbstract
The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between road geometry and severe bus accidents in Brazil, based on an adaptation of the Umbrella Handle Model (UHM) and emphasizing the influence of unbalanced centripetal acceleration in the occurrence of these events. Three accidents of this type were selected for study, all of them recorded along or close to horizontal curves of Brazilian highways (Trindade Access, RJ 155 and SP 125 roads). The variation in centripetal acceleration of vehicles traveling under operating speed along each “smoothed tangent” was measured using the Keuwlsoft Accelerometer Counter app for smartphone. Transverse and longitudinal acceleration peaks were highlighted for each study section, and, in the first case, the critical variations refer precisely to the locations of the RJ 155 and SP 125 roads where bus accidents were recorded. With regard to the Road Risk Index (RRI), with the exception of the RJ 155 road, the highest RRI values among all combinations between a tangent and a sequential horizontal curve were also observed for the places of occurrence of the investigated accidents.
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