Road Accident Victims in Portugal. Two case studies

Transcription

1 1 Road Accident Victims in Portugal. Two case studies Tiago Guerreiro a Instituto Superior Técnico, Departamento de Engenharia Civil, Lisbon, Portugal Abstract In Portugal, there are a number of fatalities due to accidents in roads. In the nineties and during the first years of the 21 st century, the road fatalities represented one of the great issues which were discussed due to the total being extremely high when compared with other European countries. Some news disclosed by the media cause some impact and shock the society, causing public debates about the subject. Usually these debates focus on the driver s condition, disregarding any problems that may exist on the roads. In a different angle, it s not possible to understand the development throughout the years, because the information disclosed by the media isn t enlightening about the number of victims over long periods of time. The main purpose of this work is to show the development of road fatalities in Portugal, between 1996 and 2006, through the analysis of victims and compare them to the values that other countries register. Also important is identifying the kind of accidents that causes more victims and the type of roads where those take place. The secondary purpose is the analysis of traffic victims on two different roads, during which the development of the number of victims and the locations of black spots will be analyzed. The main conclusion is that the number of traffic accidents in Portugal has decreased significantly, especially on the levels of serious injuries and fatalities. This positive development is due to the increase of motorways, which have been proven to be the infrastructure where the least deaths and injuries occur. This reduction allowed Portugal to reach the lower number of victims of other European countries. The study of the two roads not only allowed this conclusion to be consolidated, but also made the detection of some common errors on black spots possible Elsevier Science. All rights reserved Keywords: fatalities; minor injured; seriously injured; black spot 1. Introduction Road fatalities are a concern that spawns many debates. Many kinds of studies concerning this matter are possible, such as trying to understand the psychological consequences on people witnessing road accidents [39], or, following a different approach, estimating the economical expenses of said accidents [41]. However the present work, try to explain in a simple way, the evolution that occurred on the Portuguese roads between 1996 and 2006, so that could be possible to understand if the number of victims as been reduced or not, and if Portugal is accomplishing the goal set by the EU on the beginning of this century. 2. Analysis of road fatalities in Portugal For this chapter, the development of the number of victims in Portugal was analyzed, both in the whole country and just regionally, as well as by type of road and accident. The evolution of road fatalities in Portugal and other countries from the EU is shown in the end of this chapter. All the analyses were organized according to the following types of victims: fatal, seriously injured, and slightly injured Road Fatalities Global Development Between 1996 and 2006, there was a big reduction of the number of road victims in Portugal, having decreased from to But this decrease tendency was only proved after A more careful look on this development allows the knowledge that all kinds of victims suffered the same results. Fatalities: the number of deaths decreased from 2100 in 1996 to a very positive result in 2006 with only 850 deaths (60% less) was the first year with less than 1000 deaths. Seriously Injured: the number of seriously injured decreased from in 1996 to 3500 in This is the

2 2 Physica C highest decrease rate in all kind of victims, with a reduction of 70%. Slightly Injured: the worst result occurred on the number of slightly injured. The drop of registered injuries (56000 in 1996 to in 2006), means that this indicator had the minor decrease rate (only 20%). There actually was an increase in the number of slightly injured between 1996 and 1998, reinforcing the notion that these are the victims with the worst road behaviour. Seeing these results, it s easy to conclude that there was evolution occurring in a very positive manner. However, we cannot ignore that during this time period, over people died and other suffered injuries while on the road Road Fatalities per capita After the general analysis of the development of victims, it s important to relate the number of inhabitants in Portugal with those results. Since the amount of fatalities and injuries was so different, they were analyzed on different scales. The number of deaths was analyzed per inhabitants, while the injuries were analyzed per These scales were used in order to ease the reading of the figures. Fatalities by Inhabitants: somewhat excused, due to the increased experience between 1996 and Fig. 2 - Development of Seriously and Slight Injuries by inhabitant in Portugal, between 1996 and Road Fatalities by type of accident To better understand the development of road fatalities in Portugal, it was important to study the type of accidents which had more victims. With the available information, 3 accident types were defined: running over, collision and off road. Due to the difficulty of getting some information, the analysis of fatalities and serious injuries only refers to the years between 1998 and Fatalities by accident: Fig. 1 - Development of fatalities per inhabitant in Portugal, between 1996 and Looking at figure 1, it s possible to observe the decrease in deaths per capita. In 1996, 22 people died for each In 2006 that number was reduced to 9 (62% reduction). This development was due to the reduction of fatalities, but also to the number of Portugal s inhabitants increasing by half a million. Seriously and Slightly Injured per Inhabitants: The number of injuries per people suffered a significant reduction, as shown on figure 3. On serious injuries the rate reduction was of about 70% (from 11 registered incidents in 1996 to 4 on 2006), while on minor injuries the results weren t so decent, with a decrease of only 25% (58 minor injuries in 1996, 44 on 2006). The bad results on the decrease of minor injuries can be Fig. 3 - Development of fatalities by type of accident in Portugal, between 1998 and Figure 3 shows that the majority of deaths happen on collisions. This type of accident had the majority of fatalities in the analyzed years. However, the number of fatalities on collisions decreased substantially. In people were killed in this type of accidents, while in 2006 it decreased to 371 (60% less). The off road accidents were the 2 nd deadliest kind, as well as the one with the smallest decrease rate (42%). That means a difference of 250 deaths between 1998 and Considering all types of accidents, running overs are those which people are the most cautious about. It was the type that had the least fatalities every year; as well as the

3 3 biggest reduction rate, 63%, having gone from 350 deaths to 140. Fatalities by type of road: Serious injuries by accident: Fig. 4 - Development of serious injuries by type of accident in Portugal, between 1996 and 2006 Once again collisions are the type in which the most victims (seriously injured in this case) occur. But that had an approach to the registers of the others accident types. That fact comes from a big reduction in registers from all years, totalling in around 62% (decrease of 2700 serious injuries between 1998 and 2006). Off road accidents again have the 2 nd highest numbers of registers and the smallest reduction rate. A reduction of 856 seriously injured people between 1998 and 2006 from 2053 to 1197) means a reduction rate of 42%. Like in the previous analysis, running overs are the type with the lowest number of serious injuries every year, and the one with the higher reduction rate (around 64%), meaning a decrease of around 787. Synthesis: with these results, the conclusion is that collisions are the dangerous type of accidents and need to be analyzed with more detail. So the different kinds of collisions were studied. From this, it was learned that, between 2004 and 2006, frontal and lateral collisions caused the most fatal and gravely injured victims, with the former representing 46% of total deaths, and the latter 32%. As for serious injuries, frontal collisions caused 40% of them, while 38% were caused by lateral collision Fig. 5 - Development of fatalities by type of road in Portugal, between 2001 & The graphic on figure 5 shows that the evolution was favourable in all types of road, with a decreasing number of deaths in all of them. Highways had the highest decrease rate (60%), going from 187 deaths in 2001 to 87 on Country roads had a very good development, going from 630 deaths in 2001 to 354 in 2006, which means a decrease rate of 44%. However this kind of road had, every year, the highest number of deaths. On the other end, motorways and other roads had the least number of deaths. On the motorways, it s possible to see a stabilization tendency of the number of deaths, as this category had the lowest decrease rate (24%). Finally, it s necessary to refer the streets. Despite going down from 318 to 189 deaths (decreased by 40%), the streets were the type or roads with the 2 nd highest number of deaths in every year. Seriously Injuries by type of road: Road Fatalities by type of road This analysis enabled the knowledge of which are the most dangerous roads in Portugal. But first, understanding the different types of roads that exist is necessary. There are 6 types of roads in Portugal: motorways, highways, country roads, city streets, streets, and the last type, others (which includes forest roads and bridges). However this division of roads was only considered after Fig. 6 - Development of seriously injuries by type of road in Portugal, between 2001 & The number of serious injuries by road type once again shows that country roads and streets are the most dangerous types. On this particular case, streets register the most seriously injuries. After these two types, it s possible to see that the city streets, despite going from 685 registers in 2001 to 414 in 2006, had more registers than motorways, highways and Other roads. Once more, the decrease in number of victims overall was quite evident. Highways were the road types with the highest

4 4 Physica C decrease rate (57%), while streets and country roads showed the highest decrease in number of registered incidents (815 and 847, respectively). In face of these results, it s obvious that country roads and streets are the most dangerous roads, while motorways and highways are the safest, mainly due to the differences between all these kinds of roads. Motorways and highways have central reserve and split level junction, thus preventing some violent accidents such as collisions. Also, the fact the motorways and highways don t allow the circulation of pedestrians prevents running overs. It s also important to consider the increase in the number of motorways in Portugal in recent years. As of 1996, the extension of motorways reached only 600 km, and in 2006 that number changed to 1400 km. Increasing the number of motorways also helped to reduce the number of victims, due to a smaller percentage of road being accessible to pedestrians Road Fatalities by Region Five regions of Portugal, excluding Azores and Madeira, were considered for this analysis: Lisboa e Vale do Tejo ; Norte ; Centro ; Alentejo and Algarve. This analysis will, once again, begin with the number of fatalities. Fatalities by region: Fig. 7 - Development of fatalities on several regions of Portugal Going by the graphic on figure 7, it s possible to understand that the number of deaths decreased in all the regions. Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, Norte and Centro were the regions with the most registers, but also those who had the bigger reductions. The region of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo had the biggest reduction, going from 621 to 237 deaths between 1996 and 2006 (62% less). The region of Centro had the 2 nd biggest reduction on the number of deaths, decreasing by 384 registers between 1996 & 2006 (57%). This was the region in which the most people died during this period. About 5000 people died on Centro, while in Lisboa e Vale do Tejo only about 4800 people died. The Norte region had the 3 rd biggest ammount of deaths, with 4200 between 1996 and On this region, the number of deaths decreased from 543 to 219, meaning a 60% reduction. The regions of Alentejo and Algarve were those with the least deaths, leading to a smaller reduction (from 189 to 77 on Alentejo, and 127 to 51 on Algarve ). It s also possible to see that in these two regions, the tendency for a decrease in number of deaths is minor. Seriously injured by region: Fig. 8 - Development of seriously injuries on several regions of Portugal, between 1996 & 2006 Looking at figure 8, it s possible to observe some differences when compared to the number of fatalities. The most notable is the relief in the Lisboa and Vale do Tejo region on this type of victims, even if it still has the biggest amount of gravely injured. The huge decrease of over 4000 registers (from 5397 to 1151, or about 79%) approached that region to the all-around average. This was due to there being big decreases every year. After Lisboa e Vale do Tejo, the Centro and Norte regions registered the most victims. The Centro region had a big enough decrease to allow it to home in on Norte, with the former going from 2487 serious injuries to 949, and the latter from 1720 to 830. Finally, Alentejo and Algarve suffered a total reduction of 685 gravely injured (475 in Alentejo and 210 in Algarve). The bigger reduction in Alentejo allowed to get close to the numbers registered in Algarve. After the analysis of fatalities and seriously injured by region, it s easy to conclude that Centro and Lisboa e Vale do Tejo are the most problematic regions, having registered the most vicitms. However, since these are also the most populated areas, another analysis was carried out, whcih considered the number of inhabitants.

5 5 Fatalities & Seriously Injuries in region per capita Fatalities on Lisboa e Vale do Tejo : Fig. 9 - Development of fatalities on several regions of Portugal, by people Fig Development of seriously injured on several regions of Portugal, by people In both figures (9 & 10) some big changes are notorious. The regions of Alentejo and Algarve are now those with the highest values. This came from the fact that those two regions have much less population that the others. This shows that regions with more victims aren t necessarily more problematic, due to more traffic, and thus, more accidents. But this notion isn t completely correct, as proven by the results in Alentejo and Algarve. It was previously shown that some kinds of roads are more accident-prone than others. Motorways, for instance, have technical characteristics that make them safer than others. Thus, in Alentejo and Algarve, the regions with the least motorways and the most country roads (the most dangerous kind), there are the most victims The region of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo The high numbers of victims registered in Lisboa e Vale do Tejo and the fact that only two roads per region were studied made it more important to study this area with more detail. The information was split between 3 districts: Lisboa, Setúbal and Santarém. Fig Development of fatalities on each district of "Lisboa e Vale do Tejo" region The number of fatalities decreased a lot in all districts, and in all of them, the reduction rate was over 60%. The district of Lisboa had the biggest reduction on the number of deaths: 163 (621 in 1996, 237 in 2006), meaning 62% less deaths. But, however good this development was, it wasn t enough to stop Lisboa from being the deadliest district. Setúbal had the 2 nd biggest reduction in number of victims, with 208 deaths in 1996 and only 84 in 2006, meaning a reduction of 124 individuals, or 60%. Note that Setúbal had an increase in fatalities for the first 4 years. Santarém had the smallest reduction in terms of quantity (148 in 1996, 51 in 2006), but the highest reduction rate (66%). However, this district did have some years in which the number of deaths increased. Seriously Injured on Lisboa e Vale do Tejo : Fig Development of seriously injured on each district of "Lisboa e Vale do Tejo" Figure 13 shows a difference between the number of fatalities and serious injuries by district. During this period, Santárem was the district with 2 nd highest number of grave injuries, but in 2006 that number was lower than in Setúbal, due to a bigger reduction. Between 1996 and 2006, the number of serious injuries in Santarém went from 1542 to 225 (a very healthy 85% reduction), while Setúbal had a slightly weaker performance, decreasing from 1100 serious injuries in 1996 to 248 in 2006, meaning 77% less victims. Once again, it was on Lisboa that registered the majority of

6 6 Physica C incidents, showing much larger figures than the other districts in the first few years. Thankfully, there was a huge reduction in the number of victims, going from 2755 in 1996 to 678 in 2006, or, in other words, a reduction of 75%, the best result out of all three districts. After the development analysis of the number of deaths and seriously injuries on Lisboa e Vale do Tejo region, the importance that the Lisboa region has is evident, since it s where the most deaths and injuries occur. However, it isn t safe to affirm that it is the most problematic district or the one with the worst roads, because, as seen before, everything is relative, and so the data is dependant on the number of inhabitants. Fatalities & Seriously Injuries in Lisboa e Vale do Tejo : Figures 13 & 14 show the evolution of fatalities and serious injuries per capita. is due to a high population and large number of vehicles. This actually leads Lisboa to have the most and best roads of all three regions (specially on Santárem, which has the fewest inhabitants). This also influences the results in each area Road Fatalities on Portugal Vs Road Fatalities on EU Considering the good evolution observed in Portugal, it was important to compare the number of road victims in Portugal to other countries of the EU, just to understand in which stage of development is Portugal. As actually there are many memberships on the EU, the option was to get a comparison to only 3 other countries. This was done mainly so the graphs wouldn t become over-complicated. The chosen countries were Spain, France and the UK, mainly because the similarity in the evaluation of road fatalities is similar to ours, making it much easier. Due to missing information, the results pertain only to the years 1996 through The correct way to compare the development of road fatalities in countries with different dimensions of population is making the analysis per capita, and so the following results are presented in such manner. Fatalities on EU countries by 1 million Inhabitants: Fig Development of fatalities by people, on each district of "Lisboa e Vale do Tejo" region Fig Development of Fatalities on Portugal, France, Spain and UK by 1 million inhabitants Fig Development of seriously injured by people, on each district of "Lisboa e Vale do Tejo" region Considering the population in each district, the district s rankings change completely. In fact, due to the reduced population that lives on Santarém, this district is the one with the most deaths and injuries per capita. Setúbal remains on an average level, between Lisboa and Santarém, but coming closer to the former on the number of serious injuries per capita. So, we can conclude that although Lisboa has the most victims, it s fatalities and serious injuries per capita are the lowest, meaning that it s high number of incidents It s possible to observe that, in spite of the respectable reduction on the number of deaths by million people (44% reduction rate), Portugal hasn t yet reached the standards of France, Spain or the UK. Only after 2001 did Portugal start to get closer to the fatality rates of those countries, namely Spain, since Portugal s 44% reduction was much bigger than Spain s 26%. This shows that, despite Portugal s good results, there s still room for improvement. Only when Portugal has reached a level comparable to the UK s can the road incidents be considered to be under control.

7 7 Seriously Injured on Portugal & Spain: To improve this analysis, a comparison of serious injuries per capita was made However, it was only possible to do so between the years 1998 and different years). This seems to be the right option since it wasn t correct to consider (e.g.) the kilometres 3,8 and 3,9 as two different black spots. It as to be considered as only one black spot, where are jointed consecutive black spots. It s important to look and evaluate the alignment of one road by a continuous way, and not as separated parts, so that it is possible to identify probable technical problems. The identified black spots of Estrada Nacional 6 and their location are shown on table 1. Firstly, the development of deaths and injuries (seriously and slight) in this road is analysed (fig. 20). Note that on this analysis, it was considered important to show the number of slight injuries. Fig Development of seriously injured by million of inhabitants, in Portugal and Spain. Figure 16 shows some curious results about the development of serious injuries in Portugal and Spain. Following 2001, Portugal had less seriously injured by million people than Spain. This result is very positive, seeing as in Spain the number of victims of this kind also had a decrease of 42%, meaning that this didn t happen by a stabilization tendency of increase of the number of incidents in Spain, but because Portugal s decrease rate of 56% bested Spain s. Thanks to this reduction, as of 2005, the difference between of serious injuries per million people between Portugal and Spain was of Study of Road EN 6 In this chapter one road on the Lisbon district is studied. During many years it was considered as one of the most dangerous on Portugal. Firstly the development of the different types of victims was analysed. On a second phase, some possible technical problems, that were detected on the black spots of this road, were studied Road Accidents Victims Development on EN 6 This analysis was made taking into account the number of victims that were registered on the black spots, between 1996 and It s important to explain how black spots were defined. The annual road accidents reports refer all the places that were considered as black spots in each year. However it was possible to observe that there were some places mention in one year, and on the next were mentioned places with a distance until 100m from the previous year (e.g.: in 1999 the 3,8 km was considered as black spot, but in 2000 it was the 3,9 km considered as black spot). On the reports is said that a black spot is a link with 100 to 200 m of length, and considering this, the option to join black spots that had common links was made (despite being mentioned on Fig. 17- Development of victims on road "EN 6" The most important idea taken from the EN 6 graphic is that the development of the number of victims was very positive. All kind of victims reduced their registers, especially the fatalities. This kind of victims reached the best result possible, when in 2005 and 2006 didn t occur any death. The number of seriously injured also decreased substantially. This indicator didn t reach the total reduction (like the fatalities), but passed from 26 registers in 1996, to 4 registers in This difference matched to a decrease rate of 85%. The period between 1996 and 1998 was especially positive, because in those years the reduction was of 65%. The minor injured were the kind of victims that had the worst results. The reduction was only about 83%, what means that the 95 minor injured in 1996, became only 16 in The development of the numbers of victims shows that the evolution has been very good. However, this is the analysis of one road, so it s important to stand out the black spots. That way, it s possible to know the places were the greater number of victims occurred. The black spots analysis begins presenting their number throughout the years (fig.18). Fig Development of the number of black spots on road "EN 6"

8 8 Physica C By the observation of the graphic of figure 18, it can be seen that the number of black spots per year decreased significantly. The reduction was of 83%, and it was so big, that in 2006 only two places were considered as black spots. It s curious that the number of black spots and minor injured had a similar development through the years. That situation occurs because minor injured are the main type of victims registered on EN 6. Proceeding the black spots analysis, the results in each one were studied. For this analysis is important to see Table 2, where the number and location of all the black spots is presented. Black Spots km 1 2 a 2,1 2 2,8 a 3,1 3 3,5 a 3,6 4 3,8 a 4,1 5 4,8 a 5,1 6 5,5 a 5,7 7 6,0 a 6,2 8 6,8 a 6,9 9 7,0 a 7,1 10 7,4 a 7,5 11 7,7 a 8,0 12 8,1 a 8,2 13 8,8 a 9,1 14 9,3 a 9,4 15 9,8 a 9, ,6 a 10, ,8 a 11, ,3 a 11, ,0 a 12, ,3 a 12, ,7 a 12, ,9 a 13, ,5 a 13, ,8 a 14,4 Table 1 - "EN 6" black spots numeration The next two figures (fig. 19 and fig. 20), show the number of victims in each black spot of this road. Fig Number of fatalities & seriously injuries in each black spot of "EN 6" In what concerns minor injuries, there are three places that stand out immediately: the black spots number 2, 4 and 24. Those ones had more than 50 minor injured between 1996 and On the opposite, the spots 1, 3, 8, 12, 15 e 16 were the places with less minor injured. Observing figure 21, allows to understand that the black spots 13, 18 and 21 were those who had the largest number of seriously injured. During the years in study, the number of seriously injured in those spots, was above 10. Those three are followed by the black spots number 4, 9, 11, 20 and 24, that registered more than 6 seriously injured. By the other hand, on the black spots number 3, 7 e 14 didn t occur any seriously injured. Looking to these and the minor injured records, it s possible to understand that the black spots 11, 13 and 24 are the places with the largest number of injured. In what concerns to fatalities, figure 20 shows that there aren t registers of any death in the majority of the black spots. Considering only the black spots were deaths occurred, it s easy to see the most dangerous. The black spots number 18 and 21 were the places where most people lost their life (5 deaths on the 18 th black spot, and 6 on the 21 st ). Looking to the black spots with more deaths and more seriously injured, it came to conclusion that the spots 18 and 21 are the ones with the most registers. Considering all kinds of victims, it s easy to see that the black spots 11 and 24 are those with the highest number of vicitims. The most dangerous black spots results are summarized on table 2. Fig Number of minor injuries in each black spot on "EN 6" Black Spots Victims Minor Injured Seriously Injured Fatalities km km km km km km Table 2 - Summary Table of fatalities registers

9 9 By this table, it s easy to understand that this road is more dangerous, after the 6 th kilometre. The records of deaths, are all after the kilometre 6, especially in two road sections: the first is between the kilometer 6 and 8; the second is between the 12 th and 14 th kilometer. This idea is also suported by the number of seriously injured in those road sections, because the number of that kind of victims is clearly superior after the km 6. By the table 2 and 3 is possible to check that the most problematical black spots (11, 18, 21 and 24) are all in the road sections that are considered as the most dangerous Problems Identification and Corrective Measures After the last analysis, a few possible technical problems on several black spots were identified. For the accomplishment of this task there were made some visits to the EN 6. With the measurements taken in those visits it was possible to make calculations related with the top speed allowed and curvature radius. To determine other parameters, computer software was used (like AutoCAD ). All this information was compared with values that are described on some publications that are used on the road projects in Portugal. The EN 6 is a road with 2 lanes on both ways. It has central reserve in most of the kilometres (in some places where it doesn t exist, there are some small pillars). The top speed allowed is 70 km/h, but in some road sections it s less than that. The first problem of this road is it s direction, that is predominantly East-West. This characteristic causes problems of visibility in some times of the day, but can t be minimized. Other problem that was detected on several places is the dimension of the lanes, which appears to be insufficient. Considering the situation of one car overtaking another, and moving with a speed of 70 km/h, the driver has a feeling that the two cars are too close. That situation can be dangerous, because one of the drivers may not have enough experience, and can provoke an accident. This problem was detected on black spots 3, 4, 5, 6, 11 e 18. To minimize this risk, the speed limit could be reduced, or the lanes could be enlarged (however this second idea is very hard to execute). Other problem detected in some places is the accesses of some streets and car parking. In the majority of cases, those accesses are built perpendicularly to the axis of the road. That way, the vehicles that want to enter on EN 6 will enter with a low speed comparing with the vehicles already on the road, what could cause some accidents. This situation was verified on the black spots 3, 4, 7, 10, 11, 16, 19, 21 and 24. To resolve this problem, the accesses must be changed. The geometry of the accesses must be oblique, instead of perpendicular. The next problems are all related with the curvature radius. First it was discover that many curves have a small radius, and that the speed limit in those places is too high for those curvature radiuses. On an extreme case, this situation could provoke some accidents. This problem is aggravated by another one, which is the existing of too long straight lines (with lengths of 300, 500m). According to the regulation Normas de Traçado [37], in this kind of road with a 500m straight line, the curvature radius must be 500m too. But in many cases, that recommendation is not verified, what could be dangerous and take to the occurrence of some accidents. The third problem detected on curves of this road is due to obstacles that exist near the road (like walls and vegetation). These obstacles decrease the stopping sight distance, that in many places isn t enough. These are the three problems detected on the EN 6 related with the curvature radius. There are some solutions to resolve these problems. Recognizing that it s very hard to change the radius curvature in some places (because the space around this road isn t enough, and doesn t allow a change of the horizontal alignment), it s suggested that the speed limit could be reduced. Other method is to remove the vegetation that exists near the curves. That way it would be possible to respect the stopping sight distance, according to the speed limit, and the radius curvature. In places where it isn t possible to remove the obstacles (like wall s and houses), it s suggested the reduction of the speed limit. The last problem detected in several black spots of the EN 6 road is associated with the crossing of pedestrians. During the summer, some visits to this road were made, and it was possible to observe that many pedestrians try to cross the road out of the correct places. This situation occurs especially after the 7 th km, where the beaches begin. To avoid the crossing of the road in inadequate places, it s necessary to put more zebra crossings, which would be protected with traffic lights. To complement this idea, it s necessary to put fences that prevent pedestrians to try to cross the road out of the correct places. 2. Study of Road A5 After the analysis of EN 6, that belongs to one type of road where many fatalities occur, it s interesting to compare the results with a motorway. The choice of this road ( A5 ) was due to it s similar direction with EN 6 (both roads go from Lisbon to Cascais ). This chapter only studies the development of road fatalities on the A5, and doesn t approach possible problems on the black spots. This option has been taken, because it wasn t possible to get measurements, and to make stops near the road to take notes.

10 10 Physica C 2.1. Fatalities Road development on A5 The analisys of fatalities on the motorway A5 was made the same way that the analysis of EN 6. The development of victims trough this route was obtained by the records of black spots between 1996 and This analysis was made adapting the different black spots refered in the annual DGV reports. Once again the option was to join sucessive black spots, to become only one. In case of doubt, it s recommended to consult the 1 st Paragraph of chapter 3.1 (page 7). The road sections that were considered black spots will be displayed on a table. Beginning the fatalities road analysis on A5, it s described on the figures 21 and 22, the development of fatalities, seriously and minor injured. then the development of minor injured had considerable fluctuations (e.g. the year of 1998 registered an increase of 67% relativity to 1997), and at last this was the only indicator where the A5 had worst results that the EN6. In both fatalities and seriously injured, the motorway A5 has less registers that EN 6. In fact, during this period, on road A5 only 17 people died, while the number of deaths on EN 6 was 29. Also the number of seriously injured in A5 was less than in EN6 : 79 registers against 101. But what concerns to minor injuries, the motorway A5 had much more victims that the EN 6 (938 registers against 611). After the analysis of victims development on A5 through the years, it s important to study the registers on each black spot, and discover where the most dangerous or problematic road sections are. This analysis of black spots begins with the presentation of the development of their number through the years (figure 23). Fig Development of minor injuries on "A5" between 1996 & 2006 Fig Development of the number of black spots on road "A5" Fig Development of Fatalities and Seriously Injured on road"a5" By the observation of both figures (21 & 22), it s easy to see that all the kind of victims evolved in a positive way. The number of deaths is the kind of victim that reached the better results. The reduction was 100%, thanks to the results in 2005 and 2006, when no deaths were registered on this road. However it s necessary to alert that the number of deaths on this road, was always small (the biggest number of deaths in one year was 4), comparing with EN 6. The second best results was the number of seriously injured. The reduction of this type of victim was very positive (about 86%), since it passed from 21 registers in 1996 to only 3 registers in The last type of victims analysed were the minor injured. Without despict for the positive development occurred on the number of minor injured, this was the type of victim with worst results. First the decrease was only of 36%; The graphic on figure 23 shows that despite some variances through the years, the number of black spots clearly decreased. From 12 registers on 1996, it passed to 7 in 2006 (what means a variance of 42%). It s curious that the development of the black spots it s similar to the development of the minor injured. That situation comes from the large number of minor injured that was register year after year, and influence de number of black spots. This situation explains why the number of black spots by year is superior on A5 that in EN6. Continuing the black spots analysis, now it s time to study the number of victims in each one. For this analysis it s necessary to see the Table 3, where the number and location of all black spots detected on A5 are described.

11 11 Black Spots km 1 0,1 a 0,6 2 0,8 a 0,9 3 1,0 a 1,1 4 1,5 a 1,6 5 1,8 a 1,9 6 2,0 a 2,2 7 2,4 a 2,6 8 2,8 a 3,1 9 3,8 a 4,5 10 4,7 a a 5,9 12 6,0 a 6,1 13 6,3 a 6,4 14 6,8 a 7,2 15 7,3 a 7,6 16 7,8 a 8,1 17 8,5 a 8,6 18 8,8 a 9, ,0 a 10, ,8 a 11, ,3 a 14, ,5 a 14,6 Table 3 - "A5" black spots numeration The register of victims by black spots is on the next two figures (24 & 25). Fig Number of minor injuries in each black spot on A (more than 250, what represents 28% of all minor injured) puts this as the worst of all 22 black spots. On this analysis there are other spots that had a considerable number of minor victims: the spots 1, 10, 14 and 15 with more than 50 injured. On the opposite, the spots 5, 17, 21 and 22 had registers below 10 injured. The small number of seriously injured by black spot, allows to understand that the motorways are safer that country roads. However it s interesting to see that the spots 9 and 14, are again the places with more injured. 37% of the seriously injured happened on those 2 places. By the other hand the spots 5, 7 and 22 didn t register any seriously injured. The last kind of victim s left to study are the fatalities. As was expected the registers by black spot are low. Only 7 spots had registered deaths in the period in study. From those, the spot number 9 is once again the one with worst results. Looking for all victims by black spot, it s easy to conclude that the spots 14, 15 and mostly the black spot number 9 are those with more problems. At the end of this analysis, it was tried to search for something in common in the black spots that could explain the reasons for the number of victims. It was observed that the majority of black spots are in points of access (both entry and exit accesses). From the 22 spots, 15 are in points of access. Considering this, the conclusion is that the major problems of this motorway are the accesses, and it s in those places that this road should be bettered. Other fact is that 17 of the 22 points are located on the first 8 km of the road. And those first 8 km were built during the decade of 1940, to connect Lisbon to the National Stadium. Obviously that part of the road wasn t planned for the vehicles and traffic of nowadays, what could explain some of the fatalities numbers. To finish the analysis of the A5, all the registers were agregate on a summary table (Table 4). Black Spots Victims Minor Injured Seriously Injured Fatalities km km km km km km km Table 4 - Summary Table of fatalities registers Fig Number of fatalities & seriously injuries in each black spot on "A5" The minor injured registers by black spot show that this kind of victim is concentrated on a few places. The 9 th one is clearly the most problematic of all. The number of minor injured occurred in that spot between 1996 and Looking to this table, it s easy to conclude that the most dangerous road sections are between the 4 th and 8 th km. According to the summary table, 80% of the deaths occurred on this road were in those road sections. The same way the majority of injured (minor and seriously) was registered between those kilometres too. Other fact that is connected to the results on this road sections, is that the black spots 9, 14 and 15 are in these kilometres, what explains the high number of victims.

12 12 Physica C 3. Conclusion The road accident victims registers studied on this dissertation show a very positive development between 1996 and The reduction of the total number of victims in 30% (reduction of victims) is one of the most important conclusions. All type of victims had a good development, especially the registers of deaths (wich decreased 60%) and seriously injured (decreased 70%). The relation of these numbers with the inhabitants in Portugal shows that the number of deaths decreased from 22 per people in 1996, to 9 per people in The same way, the number of seriously injured decreased from 12 to 4 by people. These are good results, but it s possible do reduce it in 50%. The study about road accident victims by type of accident was very important to know which one is the most dangerous type - collisions. However this was the kind of accident that had the better development. The number of deaths decreased 60% (and 62% on seriously injured). A rigorous study allowed to understand that the head-on collision was the type of accident which caused the highest number of deaths and injuries. Then the different types of roads were analyzed. The results allowed to conclude that the motorways and highways are the safer type. Relating this with the fact that the head-on collision is the most dangerous type of accident, it s easy to understand that the technical characteristics of those roads (e.g. central reserve) avoid those types of accidents. Also, the fact that the pedestrian circulation isn t allowed on these roads, helps to explain the results. On the contrary, the country roads are where more people die and get seriously injured. That can be explained by the possibility to make an overtaking on reverse side traffic lane. And this situation may cause head-on collision. These facts help to explain why the road accidents victims reduced in Portugal in these years: it s thanks to the construction of more motorways. The region analysis shows that the highest number of victims occurs on areas with more people. But relating these numbers with the number of inhabitants in each one, the regions with less people go to the top with worst results. The meaning for this is that in those regions there are less motorways, and the most of the traffic is made by country roads, that are more dangerous. The particular analysis of the regions of Lisboa e Vale do Tejo confirms this idea, and shows that the district of Lisbon had the majority of global victims. But the number of victims by inhabitant is higher on the districts with less inhabitants. The comparison of road fatalities in Portugal with other countries shows that Portugal had a bigger reduction that some countries of EU, which means that has been an approach to the number of road accidents victims registered in France and Spain. The analysis of the two practical cases, the EN 6 and A5 confirms the conclusions of the analysis of victims by type of road. On the motorway A5 there were less fatalities and seriously injured that on the country road EN 6. The number of black spots is slightly bigger on the EN 6, and that on road A5 there is one spot where the majority of victims occur. Other difference between these two roads is that the majority of the black spots of A5 are on the accesses. On the EN 6 the most of black spots are in places with technical problems (specially related with curvature radius). Many of the problems on the EN 6, comes from the fact of this entire road been constructed on the first half of the 20 th century, and isn t proper for the traffic of nowadays. 4. References [1] Cardoso & Gomes, 2005 Avaliação do Impacte sobre a sinistralidade de Medidas Correctivas em Trecho da EN 6, Junho de 2005, LNEC [2] DGT (1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005) Annuario de Accidentes 1998, Dirección General de Tráfico, in [3] DGV (1996, 1997, 1998) Relatório 1996 Elementos Estatísticos. Julho 1997, Observatório de Segurança Rodoviária em Portugal, Direcção-Geral de Viação. [4] - DGV (1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) Sinistralidade Rodoviária Elementos Estatísticos. Observatório de Segurança Rodoviária [5] - Hoeglinger, S., Bos, N., Evgenikos, G & Lawton, J., 2005 Annual Statistical Report 2005, European Road Safety Observatory, SafetyNet. [6] - INE (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001) - Estatísticas da Saúde de Instituto Nacional de Estatística. [7] - INE (1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006) - Estimativas Provisórias de População Residente Intercensitárias Portugal, Nuts II, Nuts III e Municípios Instituto Nacional de Estatística. [8] - PEREIRA, J. Paulino, 2005 Vias de Comunicação: Elementos de Consulta Normas detraçado 2005 IST [9] - Programa de Acção Europeu Reduzir para metade o número de vítimas da estrada na UE até 2010: uma responsabilidade de todos. Junho de 2003, Bruxelas. [10] - RIBEIRO & LEAL, 2004 Acidentes Rodoviários: o impacto nas suas vítimas, 2004, Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian. [11] SALPICO, F., RODRIGUES, A., SALPICO, N., VENTINHAS, A. & SALPICO, F., (2006) Acidentes de Viação Responsabilidade Civil e Criminal por defeitos na construção e manutenção das Estradas, pp : Livraria Petrony. [12] Santos, B., Santos, L., CAVALEIRO, V., - Custos dos Utentes na Gestão da Rede Rodoviária Nacional Universidade da Beira Interior.