The key risk indicators of road traffic crashes in Serbia, Niš region

ABSTRACT

Traffic crashes are a serious public health and socio-economic problem, and they are one of leading causes of death of males in Serbia. In order to determine the main causes of road traffic crashes in Niš region, Republic of Serbia, nine key risk indicators of road traffic crashes are identified, organized into four groups (number and structure of crashes, consequences of traffic crashes, temporal and spatial location of traffic crashes, causes and sanctions), and described in detail. The indicators are ranked based on group fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (AHP), where experts from insurance companies, professionally engaged in the process of risk assessment, with different previous experience present different impact on the final ranking. In relation to the most influential factors in the assessment of traffic crashes, improper and unadjusted vehicle speed, overtaking and passing, as well as the physical condition of the driver have the highest effect.

KEYWORDS:

• Risk indicators
• traffic
• causes of traffic crashes
• fuzzy AHP method

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the anonymous reviewers for their comments and suggestions that significantly improved the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.