Citation

de Cieza AOF, Andino JCO, Cordo OV, Gomez AM, Gonzalez CG, Mengual S, Morrall JF. IATSS Res. 2000; 24(1): 60-68.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2000, International Association of Traffic and Safety Sciences, Publisher Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

With over 8,100 traffic fatalities in 1997 and an accident rate per 100 million vehicle kilometres travelled, approximately five times that of United States, Argentinean road authorities are now beginning to focus attention on traffic safety and driver education. One of the main problems in the search of causes for car accidents in Argentina is the lack of a reliable and updated data base. The results and conclusions presented in this paper are based on a thorough analysis of car accidents in the Province of San Juan, Argentina. A seven-year data base of car accidents has been compiled from police reports, including the results of traffic counts at intersections and other collision locations. In addition, topographic and filmed reports of such places and their surroundings bring about parameters such as stop lines, visibility triangles, road size, traffic light performance, etc., which allow to carrying out of a traffic flow analysis for proposing measures aiming to minimize accidents. For San Juan province, in general, the main causes are: high absolute car speeds, speed differences between vehicles, lack of good lighting, poor driving habits, lack of traffic control devices such as signs, signals, and an absence of road markings.