Methodology: Most Dangerous Intersections in New England

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

GoLocalWorcester News Team

To rank the Most Dangerous Intersections in New England, GoLocal began with every state's listings of their Top 10 high-crash or safety risk intersections.

Those intersections include off-ramp and on-ramp areas on highways as well as traditional four-corner intersections in urban and suburban areas. GoLocal's researchers utilized accident data provided by each state's DOT from the most recent Federal Highway Safety Improvement Program 5 Percent Report, and assessed four factors: total number of accidents, fatalities, injuries, and property damage only.

Because different states chose different time spans in which to accumulate their data (3-5 years), GoLocal standardized the tallies to a 3-year sum.

GoLocal created a ranking formula that weighted each of the 3 categories of crashes based on the "danger" of the outcome (fatalities were weighted more than injuries, which were weighted more than property damage only), which yielded the final ranking order.

To see the 60 Most Dangerous Intersections in New England, go here.