Examining Attribution of Fault in Fatal & Serious Injury Crashes between Drivers and Vulnerable Road Users
Traffic crashes killing or severely injuring pedestrians and bicyclists have increased dramatically in the past 10 years in the US. Research has found media and police narratives to play a strong role in shaping public opinion around strategies to prevent crashes involving vulnerable road users (VRUs), including whether those narratives attribute blame to the VRU victim. In California, following a crash, data are collected by law enforcement officers who make a determination of the “party most at fault.” Concerns exist as to whether fault in crash report data is over-attributed to VRUs, but no systematic research has assessed this. We will utilize 2016-2023 electronically reported California Crash Reporting System data to identify the presence of a crash witness at each fatal or serious injury (FSI) single-vehicle/VRU crash, under the hypothesis that fault is more accurately attributed when a witness is present. Because VRU victims involved in FSI crashes with a motor vehicle are often unconscious, in transport to a hospital, or deceased at the time of the crash investigation, only the driver’s perspective is incorporated into police reports in the absence of a witness, while the presence of a witness provides additional and, we hypothesize, more objective information. The specific research question is: is the presence of a witness associated with a higher probability that the driver will be named at fault in FSI crashes between a driver and a VRU compared to crashes between a driver and a VRU when no witness is present? We will use logistic regression to estimate the probability of the driver being attributed fault in crashes where a witness was present compared to crashes with no witness. If the probability is higher when a witness is present, we will discuss the likelihood that this implies that fault is systemically over-attributed to the VRU when there is no witness vs. other explanations. We will control for neighborhood and investigate if the effect of a witness on attribution varies according to reporting agency, victim attributes, or victim mode. The overall goal will be to estimate minimum correction factors and 95% confidence intervals for VRU-involved crashes so statistics on attribution of fault can be adjusted for future research or in policy settings.
- Record URL:
Language
- English
Project
- Status: Active
- Funding: $82015.00
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Contract Numbers:
69A3552348336
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Sponsor Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
University Transportation Centers Program
Department of Transportation
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Managing Organizations:
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Research and Technology
Department of Transportation
1200 New Jersey Avenue, SE
Washington, DC United States 20590 -
Project Managers:
Stearns, Amy
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Performing Organizations:
University of California, Berkeley
Safe Transportation Research and Education Center
Berkeley, CA United States 94720 -
Principal Investigators:
Griswold, Julia
Riddell, Corinne
- Start Date: 20251201
- Expected Completion Date: 20261130
- Actual Completion Date: 0
- USDOT Program: University Transportation Centers
Subject/Index Terms
- TRT Terms: Crash injuries; Crashes; Drivers; Fatalities; Liability; Logistic regression analysis; Vulnerable road users; Witnesses
- Geographic Terms: California
- Subject Areas: Law; Operations and Traffic Management; Pedestrians and Bicyclists; Safety and Human Factors;
Filing Info
- Accession Number: 01971695
- Record Type: Research project
- Source Agency: Center for Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety
- Contract Numbers: 69A3552348336
- Files: UTC, RIP
- Created Date: Nov 18 2025 3:03PM