Executive Summary : | India faces a significant road safety issue, with over 1.5 lakh people killed in road accidents in 2019. The country ranks first among the 199 countries in road accidents, accounting for 11% of total deaths. Heavy Vehicles (HVs) account for 15.6% of total road accident deaths on National Highways (NH), falling under the jurisdiction of the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI). These numbers are alarming and demand an immediate traffic safety action plan. Identifying factors affecting traffic safety due to HV operations is critical for developing regulatory guidelines and legal policies. This research aims to close this gap by conducting a comprehensive analysis of crashes involving HVs on Indian highways. The research will gather highway crash data from highway police records, MoRTH reports, and NHAI reports. The study aims to develop a Crash Severity Index (CSI) using crash risk data involving HVs. Safety measures based on recorded accident data provide reactive actions, and the Surrogate Safety Measures (SSM) is a proactive safety evaluation method. The developed CSI will contribute significantly toward the evaluation of traffic crash proximity and severity outcomes, and the research results can be applied to reduce the severity of HV crashes. The societal costs and consequences of resulting accidents are exorbitantly high, making it imperative to conduct extensive research on this subject. |