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. 2019 Oct 9;14(10):e0223473.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0223473. eCollection 2019.

Catastrophic factors involved in road accidents: Underlying causes and descriptive analysis

Imran Ashraf  1 , Soojung Hur  1 , Muhammad Shafiq  1 , Yongwan Park  1
Affiliations

Catastrophic factors involved in road accidents: Underlying causes and descriptive analysis

Imran Ashraf et al. PLoS One. .

Abstract

South Korea is ranked as 4th among 34 nations of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development with 102 deaths in road accidents per one million population. This paper aims to investigate the factors associated with road accidents in South Korea. The rainfall data of the Korea Meteorological Administration and road accidents data of Traffic Accident Analysis System of Korea Road Traffic Authority is analyzed for this purpose. In this connection, multivariate regression analysis and ratio analysis with the descriptive analysis are performed to uncover the catastrophic factors involved. In turn, the results reveal that traffic volume is the leading factor in road accidents. The limited road extension of 1.47% compared to the 4.14% per annum growth of the vehicles is resulting in road accidents at such a large scale. The increasing proportion of passenger cars accelerate road accidents as well. 56% of accidents occur by the infringement of safety driving violations. The drivers with higher driving experience tend to have a higher accident ratio. The collected data is analyzed in terms of gender, driver experience, type of violations and accidents as well as the associated time of the accidents when they happen. The results indicate that 36.29% and 53.01% of accidents happen by male drivers in the day and night time, respectively. 29.15% of crashes happen due to safety infringement and violations of 41 to 60 years old drivers. The results demonstrate that population density is associated with the accidents frequency and lower density results in an increased number of accidents. The necessity of the state-of-the-art regulations to govern the urban road traffic is beyond dispute, and it becomes even more crucial for citizens' relief since in our daily lives road accidents are getting more diverse.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Figures

Fig 1
Fig 1. OECD countries with the highest deaths per one million population from 2000 to 2011.
Fig 2
Fig 2. The deaths in accidents for OECD countries in 2011.
Fig 3
Fig 3. The KMA observation network in 2011.
Fig 4
Fig 4. The road accidents in South Korea from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 5
Fig 5. The rainy days vs. accidents in South Korea from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 6
Fig 6. The traffic flow and accidents from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 7
Fig 7. The registered vehicles with road length vs. accidents from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 8
Fig 8. The accidents by days of the week from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 9
Fig 9. The accidents by type of road.
Fig 10
Fig 10. The fatalities by age group of the drivers from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 11
Fig 11. The injuries by age group of the drivers from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 12
Fig 12. The accidents by day and night 2000 to 2012.
Fig 13
Fig 13. The accidents by the time of the day from 2000 to 2012.
Fig 14
Fig 14. The accidents by alcohol concentration in blood of drivers from 2000 to 2012.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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