Analysis of Variance of Accident Data to Detect Factors Correlating to Fatalities in Tennessee

The transportation system of the United States of America is heavily reliant on road traffic, particularly the Dwight D. Eisenhower National System of Interstate and Defense Highways. Although this system has facilitated inter-city accessibility and reduced travel times, it has also been associated with elevated rates of fatal accidents. In order to address this issue, it is crucial to understand the factors that contribute to these accidents. Although, research proceedings are available to detect significant variables contributing to fatalities, there is a noticeable scarcity in studies that only focus on interstate fatalities in the USA. This study aims to conduct an analysis of publicly available accident data of the Tennessee state from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's (NHTSA) Fatality Analysis Reporting System (FARS) in order to identify significant variables that are correlated with the number of fatalities on interstates. Multiple Linear Regression analysis was performed to observe the significant factors affecting the number of fatalities over a 5-year period from 2015 to 2019. The results showed that several spatial, temporal and environmental factors play significant roles in explaining the variance in the fatalities in interstate crashes in the state of Tennessee.