The Center for Analytics & Research in Transportation Safety, or CARTS, has been awarded a grant from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, or FMCSA, in the amount of $773,504 to study the causes of commercial motor vehicle, or CMV, crashes to improve safety on Louisiana’s roadways.

Helmut Schneider, PhD is the principal investigator and will be working in collaboration with co-investigator Supratik Mukhopadhyay, PhD from the LSU School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science.

'This new grant is one of the biggest grants LSU has received from FMCSA, and it helps to establish CARTS as one of the premier research centers in highways safety analytics,' said Schneider.

The researchers propose to locate areas of CMV/passenger vehicle conflict and enhance crash analysis through artificial intelligence-driven advanced video analytics on data captured from multiple traffic camera videos. Streaming video from multiple cameras will be analyzed in real-time simultaneously to capture CMV count, traffic crashes, vehicle breakdowns, congestion, and vehicle speed and to detect lane violations, following too close, hard braking, aimless driving and other unsafe driver behavior.

Application of this innovative technology will enrich crash data information leading to improved analytics and provides insights into car-truck interactions on interstates that lead to crashes involving commercial vehicles. Providing this information to the Louisiana State Police will guide more effective deployment of enforcement resources and lead to reduced crashes, injuries and fatalities involving commercial motor vehicles.

About CARTS

The Center for Analytics & Research in Transportation Safety (CARTS) is responsible for collecting, maintaining, integrating, analyzing and distributing crash-related data captured from law enforcement and other agencies throughout the State of Louisiana. CARTS utilizes this data to develop business intelligence (BI) and GIS tools, perform research studies and produce an annual factbook. These tools and publications are used by decision-makers to identify potential problem areas, create countermeasures, set policies, and establish programs to improve the safety of our roadways in Louisiana. CARTS is a center within the E. J. Ourso College of Business at LSU.

###

Contact: Mary Churay
Center for Analytics & Research in Transportation Safety
225-578-0366