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The Safety Impact of Road Debris: Updated Prevalences of Crashes, Injuries, and Deaths in the United States, 2018–2023
Road debris presents a significant threat to traffic safety. It can contribute to crashes directly when vehicles are struck by objects actively falling or strike debris lying on the road. It can also contribute to crashes indirectly, when drivers crash while performing sudden evasive maneuvers to attempt to avoid debris. However, research on the danger posed by road debris is limited, due to limitations in how road debris is recorded in national crash databases. The purpose of this research was to estimate the number of crashes, injuries, and deaths attributable to road debris in the United States, and to examine the nature and likely sources of debris to inform potential countermeasures.