Corporate driver management perspectives: A PLS-SEM-based analysis of the mechanism of bus crash injury severity factor effects

In view of the suddenness, complexity and high-risk potential of bus crashes, the injury severity and its influencing factors have increasingly became the research focus in urban transportation safety management. The purpose of this study is to analyze the core elements of bus crash injury severity and its interaction mechanism, in order to provide a scientific basis for improving the bus operation safety. In this study, 283 crashes occurred in a Chongqing bus company from January to June 2022 were taken as samples around the dimensions of drivers' educational background, driving characteristics, weather, and corporate management strategies. PLS-SEM, CoMe index, MICOM, and permutation-based MGA are comprehensively applied to deeply analyze the direct and indirect effects among variables and reveal the conditional mediation effect. The study found crash injury severity effects ranked in order of crash liability, work intensity, weather conditions, violation tendency, education, and driving experience. Bus driver's crash liability plays a fully mediating role between several factors and injury severity, while improving education and increasing rest gap time are effective in reducing bus driver's crash liability. Notably, bad weather flat peaks and good weather peak periods are prone to more severe bus crashes. In addition, the mediating effect of driving experience on liability level through violation tendency was significant only in bus driver groups with moderate to high sense of work responsibility. This study deepens our understanding of bus crash injury severity and its interaction mechanism, guiding targeted safety measures for bus corporation and boosting overall public transportation safety.