Abstract
Police records, kept in the form of yearbooks, enabled analysis of the possible relationships between traffic accidents and the weather in the Czech Republic for the 1979–2020 period. These data were used to create annual series of traffic accidents in general, accidents with only material damage, numbers of people injured (seriously and slightly) and fatalities. Seven weather categories were used to characterise the weather at the time of an accident. The categories “rain”, “onset of rain and light rain”, “snowfall” and “glaze ice and rime” proved the most important, contributing to the highest numbers of accidents, fatalities and injured. Less important were “fog”, “gusty wind” and “other inclement weather”. The influence of the relative annual proportions of all weather categories on the numbers of all accident characteristics fluctuated generally between 10 and 30%. Annual numbers of accidents, fatalities and injured attributed to individual weather categories were statistically significant when correlated with series of annual numbers of days with fog, rain, snowfall, glaze ice and gusty wind. The closest relationship emerged for snowfall, with correlation coefficients between 0.76 and 0.94. The annual numbers of accidents, fatalities and injured attributed to several of the weather categories tended to decrease, especially in the two most recent decades. The discussion section concentrates on the broader context of the results obtained.
Similar content being viewed by others
Data availability
All data and materials are available on the request directed to the corresponding author.
Code availability
Not applicable.
References
Andersson AK, Chapman L (2011) The impact of climate change on winter road maintenance and traffic accidents in West Midlands, UK. Accident Anal Prev 43:284–289. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2010.08.025
Andrey J, Karlis D, Wets G (2010) Long-term trends in weather-related crash risks. J Transp Geogr 18:247–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2009.05.002
Andrey J, Mills B, Leahy M, Suggett J (2003) Weather as a chronic hazard for road transportation in Canadian cities. Nat Hazards 28:319–343. https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1022934225431
BASt – Bundesanstalt für Straßenwesen (2021) Traffic and accident data, summary statistics – Germany. https://www.bast.de/BASt_2017/EN/Publications/Media/Traffic-and-Accident-Data.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=7. Accessed 10 March 2021
Bergel-Hayat R, Debbarha M, Antonioub C, Yannis G (2013) Explaining the road accident risk: weather effects. Accident Anal Prev 60:456–465. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2013.03.006
Bíl M, Vodák R, Kubeček J, Bílová M, Sedoník J (2015) Evaluating road network damage caused by natural disasters in the Czech Republic between 1997 and 2010. Transp Res A 80:90–103. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tra.2015.07.006
Black AW, Mote TL (2015) Effects of winter precipitation on automobile collisions, injuries, and fatalities in the United States. J Transp Geogr 48:165–175. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jtrangeo.2015.09.007
Brázdil R, Chromá K, Dolák L, Řehoř J, Řezníčková L, Zahradníček P, Dobrovolný P (2021a) Fatalities associated with the severe weather conditions in the Czech Republic, 2000–2019. Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 21:1355–1382. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-1355-2021
Brázdil R, Chromá K, Řehoř J, Zahradníček P, Dolák L, Řezníčková L, Dobrovolný P (2019) Potential of documentary evidence to study fatalities of hydrological and meteorological events in the Czech Republic. Water 11:2014. https://doi.org/10.3390/w11102014
Brázdil R, Zahradníček P, Dobrovolný P, Štěpánek P, Trnka M (2021b) Observed changes in precipitation during recent warming: the Czech Republic, 1961–2019. Int J Climatol 41:3881–3902. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.7048
Brijs T, Karlis D, Wets G (2008) Studying the effect of weather conditions on daily crash counts using a discrete time-series model. Accident Anal Prev 40:1180–1190. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2008.01.001
Chakrabarty N, Gupta K (2013) Analysis of driver behaviour and crash characteristics during adverse weather conditions. Procedia – Soc Behav Sci 104:1048–1057. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.11.200
Chmelík J (ed) (2009) Dopravní nehody (Traffic Accidents). Aleš Čeněk, Plzeň
Cools M, Moons E, Wets G (2010) Assessing the impact of weather on traffic intensity. Weather Clim Soc 2:60–68. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24907338
Datla S, Sahub P, Roh H-J, Sharma S (2013) A comprehensive analysis of the association of highway traffic with winter weather conditions. Procedia – Soc Behav Sci 104:497–506. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sbspro.2013.11.143
Diakakis M, Deligiannakis G (2013) Vehicle-related flood fatalities in Greece. Environ Hazards 12:278–290. https://doi.org/10.1080/17477891.2013.832651
Edwards JB (1996) Weather-related road accidents in England and Wales: a spatial analysis. J Transp Geogr 4:201–212. https://doi.org/10.1016/0966-6923(96)00006-3
Edwards JB (1999) The temporal distribution of road accidents in adverse weather. Meteorol Appl 6:59–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1350482799001139
Eisenberg D, Warner KE (2005) Effects of snowfalls on motor vehicle collisions, injuries, and fatalities. Am J Public Health 95:120–124. https://doi.org/10.2105/AJPH.2004.048926
Enríquez-de-Salamanca Á (2020) Victims crossing overflowing watercourses with vehicles in Spain. J Flood Risk Manag 13:e12645. https://doi.org/10.1111/jfr3.12645
ETSC – European Transport Safety Council (2021) Road deaths in the European Union – latest data. https://etsc.eu/euroadsafetydata/. Accessed 10 March 2021
Han Z, Sharif HO (2020a) Investigation of the relationship between rainfall and fatal crashes in Texas, 1994–2018. Sustainability 12:7976. https://doi.org/10.3390/su12197976
Han Z, Sharif HO (2020b) Vehicle-related flood fatalities in Texas, 1959–2019. Water 12:2884. https://doi.org/10.3390/w12102884
Hanbali RM, Kuemmel DA (1993) Traffic volume reduction due to winter storm conditions. Transp Res Rec 1387:159–164
Hynčica M, Huth R (2019) Long-term changes in precipitation phase in Czechia. Geografie 124:41–55. https://doi.org/10.37040/geografie2019124010041
Jackson TL, Sharif HO (2016) Rainfall impacts on traffic safety: rain-related fatal crashes in Texas. Geomat Nat Haz Risk 7:843–860. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2014.984246
Malin F, Norros I, Innamaa S (2019) Accident risk of road and weather conditions on different road types. Accident Anal Prev 122:181–188. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2018.10.014
Markovič L, Pecho J, Faško P (2020) Zmeny v skupenskom zastúpení atmosférických zrážok v zime na území Slovenska (Changes in phase of precipitation during winter in Slovakia). Meteorol Zpr 73:19–26
Mohammed AA, Ambak K, Mosa AM, Syamsunur D (2019) A review of the traffic accidents and related practices worldwide. Open Transp J 13:65–83. https://doi.org/10.2174/1874447801913010065
PCR – Police of the Czech Republic (2021) Statistika nehodovosti (Statistics of Accidents). https://www.policie.cz/clanek/statistika-nehodovosti-900835.aspx. Accessed 14 June 2021
Petrova EG, Shiryaeva AV (2019) Road accidents in Moscow: weather impact. AES Bioflux 11:19–30
Petrucci O, Pasqua AA (2012) Damaging events along roads during bad weather periods: a case study in Calabria (Italy). Nat Hazards Earth Syst Sci 12:365–378. https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-12-365-2012
Přibil M (2011) Trendy dopravní nehodovosti v České republice (Trends in Traffic Accidents in the Czech Republic). Bc thesis, Univerzita Karlova, Praha
Roh H-J, Datla S, Sharma S (2013) Effect of snow, temperature and their interaction on highway truck traffic. J Transp Technol 3:24–38. https://doi.org/10.4236/jtts.2013.31003
Schlögl M (2020) A multivariate analysis of environmental effects on road accident occurrence using a balanced bagging approach. Accident Anal Prev 136:105398. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.105398
Schlögl M, Stütz R, Laaha G, Melcher M (2019) A comparison of statistical learning methods for deriving determining factors of accident occurrence from an imbalanced high resolution dataset. Accident Anal Prev 127:134–149. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2019.02.008
Sharif HO, Hossain MM, Jackson T, Bin-Shafique S (2012) Person-place-time analysis of vehicle fatalities caused by flash floods in Texas. Geomatics Nat Hazards Risk 3:311–323. https://doi.org/10.1080/19475705.2011.615343
Shiryaeva AV (2016) Meteorologitcheskiye usloviya funkcionirovaniya avtotransporta na territorii Moskvy i Moskovskoy oblasti (Meteorological conditions for functioning of automobile transport in Moscow and Moscow region). Izvestiya RAN – Seriya Geografitcheskaya 6:94–101
Skácal L (2007) Hloubková analýza mezinárodního srovnání dopravní nehodovosti v ČR (The detail analysis of traffic accidents in the CR in the international comparison). Observatoř bezpečnosti silničního provozu, říjen 2007. https://www.czrso.cz/clanek/hloubkova-analyza-mezinarodniho-srovnani-dopravni-nehodovosti-v/?id=1402. Accessed 14 June 2021
Spasova Z, Dimitrov T (2015) The effects of precipitation on traffic accidents in Sofia, Bulgaria. Asklepios 10:76–81
Sulan J (2006) Jíní – jev nebezpečný pro silniční dopravu (Hoar-frost as a danger phenomenon for the road traffic). Meteorol Zpr 59:37–42
Theofilatos A, Yannis G (2014) A review of the effect of traffic and weather characteristics on road safety. Accident Anal Prev 72:244–256. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2014.06.017
Tobin DM, Kumjian MR, Black AW (2019) Characteristics of recent vehicle-related fatalities during active precipitation in the United States. Weather Clim Soc 11:935–952. https://doi.org/10.1175/WCAS-D-18-0110.1
Tobin DM, Kumjian MR, Black AW (2021) Effects of precipitation type on crash relative risk estimates in Kansas. Accident Anal Prev 151:105946. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2020.105946
Vajda A, Tuomenvirta H, Juga I, Nurmi P, Jokinen P, Rauhala J (2014) Severe weather affecting European transport systems: the identification, classification and frequencies of event. Nat Hazards 72:169–188. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11069-013-0895-4
Zahradníček P, Brázdil R, Štěpánek P, Trnka M (2021) Reflections of global warming in trends of temperature characteristics in the Czech Republic, 1961–2019. Int J Climatol 41:1211–1229. https://doi.org/10.1002/joc.6791
Zahradníček P, Münster P, Bíl M, Skalák P, Panský M, Brzezina J, Bílová M, Kubeček J (2018) The December 2014 glaze event in the Czech Republic: predictability and impacts. Weather 73:375–382. https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.3199
Zou Y, Zhang Y, Cheng K (2021) Exploring the impact of climate and extreme weather on fatal traffic accidents. Sustainability 13:390. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010390
Acknowledgements
We extend our thanks to the Division Service of the Traffic Police of the Regional Police Directorate of the Region of South Moravia, and particularly to Jindřich Rybka (Brno) for preparation and provision of accident data for 1979–2008, together with Jan Straka (Prague) for provision of accident data for 2016 and 2020. Tony Long (Carsphairn, Scotland) helped develop the English.
Funding
This paper was supported by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic for SustES – Adaptation strategies for sustainable ecosystem services and food security under adverse environmental conditions project, ref. CZ.02.1.01/0.0/0.0/16_019/0000797.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
RB designed the study and wrote the manuscript with contribution of all co-authors. KC did basic calculations and finalised all figures. PZ prepared meteorological series based on CHMI data. PD contributed to scatter-plots and their interpretations. LD contributed to the creation of traffic accident database.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Ethics approval
Not applicable.
Consent to participate
Not applicable.
Consent for publication
Not applicable.
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
Additional information
Publisher's note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Supplementary Information
Below is the link to the electronic supplementary material.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Brázdil, R., Chromá, K., Zahradníček, P. et al. Weather and traffic accidents in the Czech Republic, 1979–2020. Theor Appl Climatol 149, 153–167 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04042-3
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-022-04042-3