Some determinants for road accidents severity in the district of Setúbal

Abstract

In Portugal, the district of Setúbal is among those with the higher number of road accidents with fatal injuries but with fewer accidents. This work analyzes data from road accidents that occurred in the area under the jurisdiction of the Territorial Command of Setúbal, belonging to the Guarda Nacional Republicana, the Portuguese Gendarmerie. A spatial analysis of the accidents was carried out, using the Getis–Ord Gi* statistic to identify hotspots and the Local Moran’s I statistic for spatial autocorrelation, which allowed the identification of municipalities with identical profiles for fatalities and serious injuries. With a logistic regression model, we identify some determinants which can explain the existence of serious and/or fatal injuries in road accidents: type of accident, geographical factors, temporal factors, road characteristics, drivers’ characteristics, vehicles’ features, and victims’ characteristics.