How do road characteristics influence flood fatalities?

Vehicle-related flood fatalities and rescues are a significant emergency management and road safety problem. Most previous research has focused on the circumstances such as the type of flood hazard and the personal reasons that motorists enter floodwater.

Hazard Note 83 investigates the influence of road characteristics, not only on a motorist's decision to enter floodwaters, but also on the chance of the vehicle being washed from the road and the chance of survival of people in a vehicle that has entered floodwaters. 

This Bushfire and Natural Hazards CRC research, from Risk Frontiers and Macquarie University, proposes a new risk-based procedure for assessing flood-prone roads according to the road's characteristics, which can also be used to improve the future design of roads in flood-prone areas.