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Road safety is a priority issue for governments, mainly for

humanitarian, health, and economic reasons. According to the

World Health Organization (WHO), road accidents cause the

death of approximately 1.3 million people annually, just fewer

than 3400 fatal accidents per day, additionally, between 30 and

50 million people suffer non-fatal injuries per year. It is worth

mentioning that most of the victims in traffic injuries are 90%

associated with low and middle-income countries.

This is a global concern problem considered severe and has

been addressed with direct solutions that can be implemented a

priori through effective interventions and that are carried out

from urban and transport planning in the design of safer roads,

execution of road safety audits, as well as the establishment

and application of internationally harmonized laws. An example

of this corresponds to the case of European countries, where

the identification and treatment of critical areas, improvement

of road design and traffic regulation, reduced the number of

accidents by approximately 22%.

There are instruments such as the Highway safety

guidelines: Accident reduction and prevention developed by the

Institution of Highways Transportation(2016)that it is intended

to identify, analyze, and treat critical points of accidents, this


being one of the most effective approaches on traffic accidents

prevention. Likewise, the Road Safety Audit (RSA) processes

developed in the United Kingdom in the 1980s and published in

1990 by the Institution of Highways and Transportation. Among

the specific benefits that RSA provides are safer new highways,

crash prevention, severity reduction, safer road networks,

reduction of whole-life cost of roads, and eventual safety

improvements to standards and procedures, among others. In

this sense, Wilson and Lipinski(2017) carried out a RSA practice

state review in international cases such as the United States,

Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Italy. Additionally, Persia

et al. performed a review of the main procedures that support

the authority in decision-making related to improving safety in

road networks, called Road Infrastructure Safety Management

(RISM). However, it is relevant to highlight that not all

countries are capable of implementing these procedures,

emphasizing the lack of resources, staff, knowledge, legal

regulations, and data for the application of the RISM

procedures.

In Mexico, traffic accidents are among the ten main causes

of death. Figures from the Ministry of Health of this country

reveal that in 2015, just over 16 thousand people died because


of this reason, an estimated rate of 13.3 deaths per 100,000

inhabitants, only 0.1% lower than the one registered in 2014.

According to the document "Road safety in the Region of the

Americas”, Mexico ranks 23 of 31 countries in deaths caused by

traffic. In accordance with the Specific Action Program for Road

Safety 2013-2018, deaths and disabilities caused by road

accident injuries are a growing public health problem in Mexico.

Therefore, road safety surveillance and monitoring are

imperative, since essential information can be obtained in order

to design interventions and timely decision-making. However,

this is not always fulfilled or carried out comprehensively.

As a result of the foregoing, as of the year 2014, there is

a project that seeks to improve planning and decision-making

regarding the safety of a road section. This project is located in

a mountain range of Baja California, Mexico. The objective of

this research is to develop a useful procedure to assess and

identify risks that promote accidents in the users of roads, with

the aim of improving safety through the implementation of

technical and operative strategies.

The vast majority of previous studies on accidents' causes

identification mainly focus on three significant risk factors and

from those, different safety-related areas of research have been


created: (1) the human factor and vehicle conditions, (2) the

influence of environmental conditions, and (3) factors related to

technical design and administration problems for highways.

In the first one of these risk factors, The American

Association of State Highway Transportation Officials (2018)

(AASHTO) through the Highway Safety Manual highlights human

factor as the main cause of road accidents. This is because

drivers can make judgment errors; present distractions or

inattention, as well as tiredness; carry out several tasks at the

same time; and generate deliberate violations of security

devices and laws. Therefore, several authors have analyzed the

influence of these factors on the severity and occurrence of the

accidents and, when appropriate, created accident prevention

and reduction strategies. Furthermore, Reason et al. developed

the Driver Behaviour Questionnaire (DBQ) at the University of

Manchester, one of the most widely used instruments to

measure driver behavior related to collision risk. This

instrument is attributed to a questionnaire that has been

applied and adapted to suit the context of different countries;

for example; Stanojevic et al.(2018) applied the instrument in

countries in south-eastern Europe; Lopez-de-Cozar et al. (2016)


adapted it to the Spanish case; Cordazzo et al. (2017) analyzed

the North American context and modernized it.

Other studies analyze the relationship between visual and

cognitive problems in elderly drivers with the risk of accidents.

Likewise, some studies focus on teenagers, with traffic

accidents being the main cause of death in young people and

adults between the ages of 5 and 29 worldwide. These results

indicate that the main causes of teenage driver accidents are

associated with loss of control due to speeding, visual neglect

on the road, alcohol and drug use, as well as cell phone use

when driving. As a matter of fact, the relationship between cell

phone use and accidents has become relevant by itself in the

study of human factors. Although the literature focused on the

relationship between vehicle conditions and accidents is low,

accident reports point out the main aspects that influence

vehicle accidents, including tire wear, brake system failures, as

well as exhaust system failures.

In the second area, environmental phenomena that can

increase the probability of a vehicle accident occurring are

highlighted. Malin et al. (2019) carried out a research that

analyzes the risk relation between road accidents and weather

conditions on different types of roads. According to the results,


the relative risk of accidents on roads with icy or slippery

surfaces is six times higher; additionally, the driver tends to be

more susceptible to an accident when driving on a highway with

bad weather conditions. Previous studies have analyzed the

influence of precipitation and snowfall with the increase in

accident rates, due to the loss of friction generated by tires, as

well as the lack of visibility. Moreover, several authors have

analyzed the relation of lighting conditions and have

incorporated other factors, such as high-speed driving, bad

weather conditions, among others.

In the third area, several studies have been carried out

that analyze the empirical relation between road accidents and

the different variables of geometric road design, such as

degrees of curvature, vertical slopes, and the balance of

vertical and horizontal alignments, using different statistical

models. Wang et al. review factors related to motor vehicle

accidents on highways, with a specific focus on traffic and

highways related factors, which helped in the development of

methods and policies to improve road safety. Meanwhile, the

Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) (2020) has developed

the Interactive Highway Safety Design Model. This tool provides

engineers who design roads with information on the relations


between geometry and accidents, in an accessible format for

designers that is viable in the evaluation process of different

alternatives, considering the different geometric design

variables.

On the other hand, several authors have analyzed the

existing relation between pavement conditions and the

frequency and severity of accidents. However, the current

literature discussion has not been able to clearly determine this

influence. In this context, Chen et al. (2017) mention that the

research in this regard is ambiguous; the impact can be positive

or negative, depending on heterogeneous factors such as driver

behavior. For example, drivers may behave less responsibly on

roads with adequate levels of service (LOS) and more carefully

on roads with low LOS. Therefore, it seems plausible that a high

LOS on the pavement could exhibit any number of accidents,

which is, increasing or decreasing.

In accordance with the above, the causes of traffic

accidents are a matter of statistical analysis, where the risk

factor, the interaction, and the combination of these determine

the preventive measures required according to the objective of

the managing agency, the design engineer, or decision-maker.

Rivera and Mendoza mention that it is possible to measure the


effectiveness of safety interventions through the analysis of

accidents, by ranking the effectiveness in different criteria,

such as reduction of accidents, reduction of deaths, and

reduction in costs, among others. For example, Justo-Silva and

Ferreira (2019) carried out a research that incorporates

accidents costs into maintenance planning processes and

pavements rehabilitation; Konovalova and Zarovnaya (2017)

present a mathematical model developed to determine the

appropriate actions of investors and the probable benefits that

can be obtained from projects associated with road safety

improvements; Esenou et al. (2018) and Dong et al. (2017)

analyze road safety and technology laws implementation effects

for speed control in vehicles and their impact on fatal accidents

reduction in the United States.

References

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on rural highway safety: A multivariate random parameters

negative binomial approach. Anal. Methods Accid. Res.

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Rivera Trujillo, C.; Mendoza D^az, A. Analisis Costo-Beneficio y

Costo-Efectividad de las Medidas de Seguridad

Implementadas en Carreteras Mexicanas; Instituto

Mexicano del Transporte: Queretaro, Mexico, 2009.

Justo-Silva, R.; Ferreira, A. Pavement maintenance considering

traffic accident costs. Int. J. Pavement Res. Technol.

2019,12, 562-573.

Konovalova, T.; Zarovnaya, L. The assessment model for

economic efficiency of traffic safety improvements. Transp.

Res. Procedia 2017, 20, 311-315.

Eseonu, C.; Gambatese, J.; Nnaji, C. Reducing Highway

Construction Fatalities through Improved Adoption of

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https://highways.dot.gov/research/safety/interactive-

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Malin, F.; Norros, I.; Innamaa, S. Accident risk of road and

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Lin, C.; Wu, D.; Liu, H.; Xia, X.; Bhattarai, N. Factor

Identification and Prediction for Teen Driver Crash Severity

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Cordazzo, S.T.; Scialfa, C.T.; Ross, R.J. Modernization of the

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Lopez-de-Cozar, E.; Molina, J.; Chisvert, M.; Sanmartm, J.

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Questionnaire a la Poblacion Espanola; Instituto

Universitario de Trafico y Seguridad Vial-Universidad de

Valencia: Valencia, Spain, 2016.

Stanojevic, P.; Lajunen, T.; Jovanovic, D.; Sarbescu, P.;

Kostadinov, S. The driver behaviour questionnaire in south-

east europe countries: Bulgaria, romania and serbia.

Transp. Res. Part F Traffic Psychol. Behav. 2018,53, 24-33.


AASHTO. Highway Safety Manual; AASHTO: Washington, DC,

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Yu, S.; Jia, Y.; Sun, D. Identifying factors that influence the

patterns of road crashes using association rules: A case

study from Wisconsin, United States. Sustainability

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Wilson, E.; Lipinski, M. NCHRP Synthesis 336: Road Safety

Audits-A Synthesis of Highway Practice; National Research

Council: Washington, DC, USA, 2017.

Amorim, M.; Ferreira, S.; Couto, A. Road safety and the urban

emergency medical service (uEMS): Strategy station

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