Mississippi 2007 Five Percent Report
This report is in response to the Federal requirement that each state describe at least 5 percent of its locations currently exhibiting the most severe highway safety needs, in accordance with Sections 148(c)(1)(D) and 148(g)(3)(A), of Title 23, United States Code. Each state's report is to include potential remedies to the hazardous locations identified; estimated costs of the remedies; and impediments to implementation of the remedies other than costs. The reports included on this web site represent a variety of methods utilized and various degrees of road coverage. Therefore, this report cannot be compared with the other reports included on this Web site.
Protection from Discovery and Admission into Evidence—Under 23 U.S.C. 148(g)(4) information collected or compiled for any purpose directly relating to this report shall not be subject to discovery or admitted into evidence in a Federal or State court proceeding or considered for other purposes in any action for damages arising from any occurrence at a location identified or addressed in the reports. |
Additional information, including the specific legislative requirements, can be found in the guidance provided by the Federal Highway Administration,
http://safety.fhwa.dot.gov/safetealu/fiveguidance.htm.
"5% Report" for the State of Mississippi
Introduction and Background
Section 1401 of the Safe, Accountable, Flexible and Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA-LU) amended Section 148 of Title 23 USC to create a new Highway Safety Improvement Program (HSIP) as a "core" Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) program with separate funding. The purpose of the HSIP, as stated in Section 148(b)(2) is to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries on public roads. As a requirement to the HSIP program, each state submits an annual report which describes no less than 5-percent of roadway locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs. The intent of the HSIP is to raise public awareness of the highway safety needs and challenges in each State.
Report Methodology
The "5% Report" list was generated by using the Safety Analysis Management System (SAMS) application to query all crash reports where there was a reported fatality or life-threatening injury (Injury A) for the target years of 2004 to 2006. The results from this query were exported into a spreadsheet for further review. The data in this spreadsheet included 3,522 separate crash records throughout the state, listed by each of the 82 counties in Mississippi.
From the original list exported from the SAMS query, it was determined that some records could be deleted. Some records marked for deletion included test cases where dummy crash records were input into the system that were never deleted from the state database. Other records considered for deletion from the results of this report were crash records where the location could not be found (i.e., Lakeland Drive at Lakeland Drive, with no associated street number, or Lakeland Drive at Unknown Drive) and crash records that were exact duplicates of another record in the spreadsheet.
With the dummy crash records and the non-locatable crash records removed from the analysis, the remaining crash records were individually located using one of the following methods:
- Google Earth application, available for download at http://earth.google.com/,
- Google Maps, available at http://maps.google.com,
- County maps maintained by the Mississippi Department of Transportation (MDOT), located at http://www.gomdot.com/maps/county_maps.asp, and
- Mississippi city maps, also maintained by the MDOT, located at http://www.gomdot.com/maps/city_maps.asp.
Once each record had been matched to its location on the road network, it was compared against other records in the spreadsheet. If there were no matches to the crash record, the record was marked as complete, and the next record was studied. If there was a crash record that matched with another unique record in the spreadsheet, both crash records were marked as a possible match. The criteria for a match were:
- Same location, in case a local street name was used instead of a name reported on the aforementioned maps,
- Different times, to check against a duplicate record, and
- Within 500 feet (or 0.1 miles) for intersections, or
- Within 500 feet (or 0.1 miles) for sections. (Note: In the discussion of sections, a section is only describing non-intersection areas that are within 0.1 miles of each other).
For corridors which seem to have a high number of crashes compared to other similar corridors in the state, these locations were considered to exhibit the most severe safety needs and were included in this analysis. Due to a lack of a full-functioning geographic information system (GIS) module within the SAMS application, spatial analysis across sections is still not available at this time. This issue is described in detail under the Future Reports section.
From the data review process, 135 locations were found to have 2 or greater crashes that involved a fatality or life-threatening injury. It was from this list of 135 that the "5% Report" locations were generated. Segments and intersections with 3 or greater crashes involving a fatality or a life-threatening injury were considered as locations that exhibited the most severe safety needs. This list of segments and intersections totaled 22 of the 135 initial locations, or the top 16-percent of the locations exhibiting the most severe safety needs.
Results
In Table 1, the list of the 22 locations with the most severe safety needs is identified. This chart lists the number of crashes at each location, the number of fatalities, and the total number of injuries. While the original query was run for only life-threatening injuries (Injury A), it is possible that a crash that resulted in an Injury A for one person might have only been a complaint of pain (Injury C) to another person in the same crash. Also included in the table are suggested remediation measures, as well as an estimated cost for the improvement.
The suggested remediation measures were developed from discussions with district engineers, area traffic engineers, and the State Traffic Engineer; from looking at aerial photographs; and/or from notes made at a field review. The suggested remediation measures, while specific to each location, are general in nature.
It should be noted that inclusion in this list makes these locations candidate locations for the Fiscal Year 2008 HSIP.
Table 1 - 5-percent locations in Mississippi for the years 2004 to 2006
| County | County Location - Intersection | Crashes | Fatalities | Injuries | Suggestion Remediation | Estimated Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Forrest | US 49 in Hattiesburg | 43 | 26 | 73 | Preliminary engineering corridor study | $700,000.00 |
| Desoto | MS 302 in Desoto County | 34 | 20 | 66 | Preliminary engineering corridor study | $1,000,000.00 |
| Jackson | US 90 (Denny Avenue) in Pascagoula, MS | 8 | 3 | 9 | Preliminary engineering corridor study | $400,000.00 |
| Alcorn | US 72 at CR 218 | 7 | 3 | 14 | Geometric changes, ROW acquisition | $1,000,000.00 |
| Jackson | I-10 Between Mile Marker 59 and 60 | 5 | 3 | 6 | Add capacity, add positive barrier | $12,000,000.00 |
| George | US 98 at MS 198 and Rocky Creek Road | 5 | 2 | 17 | Geometric changes, ROW acquisition | $1,000,000.00 |
| Desoto | Church Road, between US 61 and MS 301 | 4 | 2 | 5 | Left Turn Lanes; Signalization of Intersections | $800,000.00 |
| Harrison | Pass Road between Popps Ferry and Jim Money Road | 4 | 3 | 2 | Improvements to clear zone and pedestrian facilities | $500,000.00 |
| Panola | I-55 between Mile Marker 244 and Mile Marker 250 | 4 | 3 | 3 | Increase clear zone | $1,000,000.00 |
| Walthall | US 98 at MS 27 (Union Road) | 4 | 1 | 9 | Signal installed. If no improvement seen, geometric changes, ROW acquisition | $1,000,000.00 |
| Rankin | I-20, 1.25 miles east of Pearson Road (MS 468) | 4 | 1 | 8 | Increase clear zone | $1,000,000.00 |
| Benton | US 72 at MS 7 | 3 | 1 | 8 | Improve signage, add advanced warning devices | $200,000.00 |
| Coahoma | US 61 at US 49 near Lula, MS | 3 | 1 | 4 | Improve signage, add advanced warning devices | $200,000.00 |
| Coahoma | US 61 at Eagle Nest Road | 3 | 0 | 10 | Geometric changes, ROW acquisition | $1,000,000.00 |
| Copiah | I-55, Mile Marker 65 | 3 | 1 | 5 | Increase clear zone | $1,000,000.00 |
| Harrison | US 49 at MS 67 | 3 | 2 | 8 | New Four Lane to Open in FY 08 | |
| Harrison | US 49 at Polk Street | 3 | 1 | 5 | Implement Access Management | $100,000.00 |
| Hinds | US 80 at Terry Road | 3 | 3 | 6 | Improvements to signalization and pedestrian crossings | $200,000.00 |
| Jackson | MS 63 at MS 614 | 3 | 1 | 9 | Improvement to signalization and advanced warning devices | $200,000.00 |
| Newton | MS 492 at the Scott County Line | 3 | 3 | 2 | Geometric improvements to curves | $3,000,000.00 |
| Oktibbeha | US 82 at MS 763 | 3 | 3 | 4 | Geometric changes | $500,000.00 |
| Tunica | US 61 at MS 304 | 3 | 2 | 7 | I-69 should relieve congestion at this intersection. | |
| TOTALS | 155 | 85 | 280 | $26,800,000.00 |
NOTE: A single crash with multiple fatalities is listed as one crash.
Future Reports
During 2007, the state of Mississippi made forward strides in developing a more automated system for reporting the foregoing crash information. The SAMS application completed Alpha stage testing and is currently wrapping up Beta stage testing. Meetings on the development of the production version of the SAMS are to commence shortly after the submission of this report.
The state of Mississippi is also in the process of eliminating other issues that were evident during this year's reporting cycle. It is desired that by the 2008 "5% Report" report these issues will be rectified. These issues were:
Spatial analysis - Without a full-functioning GIS module with the SAMS, it is very difficult to identify problem segments along the roadway network. If crash records along a segment were not within 500 feet (or 0.1 miles) of one another, the segment was not considered as a part of this analysis. If a segment did seem to have an over-representation of crashes, it was considered for a corridor study. Once the SAMS application has cleansed data and properly aliased street names, the spatial analysis will be available.
Cleansed data - Data currently received for use in the SAMS application has some errors. For instance, a road might be misspelled or extra spaces are populated into the database. There is a project under consideration to "clean" the data that is currently in the database, as well as set forth methodology and procedures to cleanse data before it enters the SAMS application. This cleansing process will not modify pertinent crash information contained on the report, but it will allow for the ability to search for intersections or routes through the process of Street Aliasing.
Street Aliasing - It was discovered during the data review process that different streets names were used for the same streets. A crash report might list a street name, while street maps for the report only a State Highway or County Route number. For example, in Rankin County, Mississippi, Mississippi Highway 25 is also Lakeland Drive. It is hoped that with the use of Street Aliasing within the SAMS product, this issue will allow for easier data review. This issue should be rectified by the next year's report.
Crash Analysis - Crash rates and a crash severity index are not a part of the reporting of the most severe locations in the state of Mississippi. As the SAMS application is complete and that data is cleansed, crash rates and severity indices will be additional tools of analysis in this report. In the production version of the SAMS, it is anticipated that benefit-cost analysis of suggested remediation measures will be included, which will aid in the remediation analysis for the "5% Report".
Underreporting - Some cities within counties were underreported as they had not submitted their crash reports or had not submitted their crash reports to the correct authority. It is understood that this issue has been corrected, and these crash reports will be available in future reports.
