Road traffic fatalities and its determinants in high-income countries: a continent-wise comparison

Road traffic accidents (RTAs) are accountable for 1.2 million deaths and road safety is the part of sustainable development goals, which aims to provide a safe, accessible, affordable, and sustainable transport system by 2030. This study discovered the nexus of road traffic fatalities (RTFs) with its determinants in Asia, Europe, and America. Vector error correction model established the causality of RTFs (Asia, Europe), urbanization (Asia), physicians (Asia, Europe), traffic law enforcement index (Europe, America), vehicles (America), and paved roads (America). Short-run bidirectional causality of RTFs was established with educational expenditures (Asia, Europe), GNI (Europe), and urbanization (Europe). The fall in RTFs was 0.359% (Europe) and 0.957% (America) for 1% rise in GNI. The RTFs were decreased by 0.498% (Europe) and 0.390% (America) due to 1% rise in urbanization. Education shows 0.952% reduction in RTFs in Europe. The 1% increase in the number of physicians causes 0.793% reduction in RTFs in America. The RTFs were increased by 0.617% and 1.705% for 1% rise in the number of vehicles in Asia and America. The fall in RTFs was 3.604%, 0.134%, and 0.950% for 1% rise in paved roads in Asia, Europe, and America, respectively. Results show a reduction of 0.744% (Asia), 0.712% (Europe), and 0.312% (America) in RTFs due to 1% increase in traffic law enforcement index. The governments of all countries should expand and improve their paved road network and increase the enforcement of traffic laws. The government should make strict traffic laws like regular inspection of vehicles, strict inspection for the driving license, electronic challan, and medical fitness of drivers. The government should ensure the medical checkup of drivers at subsidized rates. It is useful to include the traffic rules in the educational syllabus due to the significant role of law enforcement in road safety. The government should use different media channels for the awareness of the public about loss due to road accidents.

• Record URL:
  • https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-019-05410-9
• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09441344
• Supplemental Notes:
  • © Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2019.
• Authors:
  • Ali, Qamar
  • Yaseen, Muhammad Rizwan
  • Khan, Muhammad Tariq Iqbal
• Publication Date: 2019-7

Language

• English

Media Info

• Media Type: Web
• Features: Appendices; References;
• Pagination: pp 19915-19929
• Serial:
  • Environmental Science and Pollution Research
  • Volume: 26
  • Issue Number: 19
  • Publisher: Springer Berlin Heidelberg
  • ISSN: 0944-1344
  • EISSN: 1614-7499
  • Serial URL: https://www.springer.com/journal/11356

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Crash causes; Developed countries; Fatalities; Fitness to drive; Pavements; Roads; Traffic crashes; Traffic law enforcement; Urbanization
• Geographic Terms: Asia; Europe; United States
• Subject Areas: Highways; Planning and Forecasting; Safety and Human Factors; Vehicles and Equipment;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 01717259
• Record Type: Publication
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Sep 18 2019 5:16PM