Critical Factors Analysis of Severe Traffic Accidents Based on Bayesian Network in China

The purpose of this study is to minimize the negative influences of the severe traffic accidents in China by profoundly analyzing the complex coupling relations among accident factors contributing to the single-vehicle and multivehicle traffic accidents with the Bayesian network (BN) crash severity model. The BN model was established by taking the critical factors identified with the improved grey correlation analysis method as node variables. The severe traffic accident data collected from accident reports published in China were used to validate this model. The model’s efficiency was validated objectively by comparing the conditional probability obtained by this model with the actual value. The result shows that the BN model can reflect the real relations among factors and can be seen as the target network for the severe traffic accidents in China. Besides, based on BN’s junction tree engine, five-factor combination sequences for the number of deaths and three-factor combination sequences for the number of injuries were ranked according to the severity degree to reveal the critical reasons and reduce the massive traffic accidents damage.