Handout (1.9 MB)
controversial. This research looks into expanding the current scope by looking into the
relationship of weather-related car crashes with some variables like casualties, time variables,
crash density, and the type of storm present.
This study analyzes car crash and precipitation data from 1/1/2018 through 12/31/2022
in Franklin County, Ohio, USA. Casualties are divided into no injury, injury, and fatal, and the
time variables used were hours, months, and years. Weather conditions were divided into 3
categories: rain, snow, and other conditions (the latter won’t be looked at for some variables).
For casualties, rain was shown to make up most of the weather-related car crashes
compared to snow and a higher percentage of fatalities and injuries occur in rainy conditions
instead of snowy conditions. For time variables, the number of weather-related car crashes
decreased yearly at a slowing exponential rate, the fall and winter months have the highest
monthly number of weather-related car crashes, and the morning and afternoon hours see a peak
in weather-related car crashes, with the latter having more than the former. For crash density, the
highest densities were in the downtown area, along highways, and along major roads. Also, the
rain-related car crash density is more concentrated downtown and more scattered overall while
the snow-related car crash density is more scattered downtown and more concentrated overall.
Finally, for the type of storm present, in the 9 days studied based on how many weather-related
car crashes occurred that day, all the storm systems present were mid-latitude cyclones. There
were also crashes that occurred after precipitation had fallen and there was a decrease in the
overall number of weather-related crashes for the days that were post-COVID. These findings
are important since they open doors for further and deeper research into some of these variables.
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