Team Skillful Charmander

Accident Severity in New York State

Severe vehicular accidents are a leading cause of non-natural injuries and death in the United States. In this project, Team Skillful Charmander explored data on motor vehicle accidents recorded in New York State in hopes of answering the following question: is there a relationship between driving conditions and the severity of traffic accidents, and if so, what are the driving conditions that correlate to more severe accidents? Through our analysis, we conducted multiple logistic regression models between to explore the relationship between accident severity and situational conditions at the time of the accident. We also conducted inference via a hypothesis test to see if there was a significant difference in accident severity based on when the accident took place (day/night). Ultimately, we discovered that amount of precipitation and wind speed were statistically significant factors in relation to accident severity. Additionally, we noted significant interaction between precipitation and whether or not the accident took place at a junction. However, we were not able to conclude that the time when an accident took place (day/night) made any statistically significant difference in relation to accident severity.