Introduction

Illegal roadside parking impedes the flow of traffic as well as traffic safety, causing serious traffic congestion,traffic accidents and general traffic pollution, which is a major social problem.   Accidents involving collisions with cars parked on the roadside are on the increase.We have analyzed the characteristics of these parked vehicle accidents and present the results below, in order to encourage everyone to think about how we can prevent accidents caused by illegal roadside parking,

Contents

1. Yearly increases in parked vehicle accidents 2. Parked vehicle accident fatality rate remarkably high 3. Many of parked vehicle accidents involve moped 1st class and ordinary passenger car 4. Most collisions involve young drivers 5. 80% of parked vehicle accidents fatalities occur at night 6. 70% of parked vehicle accidents occur on roads other than intersection 7. Fatality rate of most accidents on roads 9m and wider is high 8. Kanagawa Prefecture, in particular, has the highest number of parked vehicle accidents 2.1 70% of parked vehicle accidents involve ordinary passenger car and moped 1st class 2.2 Both ordinary passenger car and moped 1st class accidents are mostly occured at night 2.3 Most moped 1st class accidents involve teenagers from 16-17 years old 2.4 Many moped 1st class fatalities involve the slipping-off of helmets Case 1. Large-sized truck crashed to light passenger car Case 2. Light truck crashed to the parked trailer Case 3. Motorcycle crashed to the parked ordinary truck

Conclusion

There are an extremely high rate of fatalities in accidents involving collisions with parked vehicles - 5 times more than the fatalities occuring in traffic accidents as a whole. Most parked vehicle accidents involve the age range of 16 to 34 years old, occur between ordinary passenger car and moped 1st class, and happen at night, from around 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. Most occur on roads other than intersection, and approximately 51% occur on roads of widths between 5.5 and 9 meters.   Parked vehicle accidents are sometimes caused by, or the responsibility of, those who crashed to the parked vehicle, but the one who parked their vehicle on the roadside also bears a great deal of the responsibility.   There are judical precedents that the courts recognize the responsibility of the owner of the illegally parked vehicle. As we have indicated, parked vehicle accidents can be extremely dangerous, so people are advised to refrain from parking on the roadside and encouraged to use the parking facilities available.   We hope that these analysis results will be put to good use in preventing both illegal parking and subsequent accidents.

Institute for Traffic Accident Research and Data Analysis (ITARDA)