Little is known about the effect of the COVID-19 on road safety indicators (RSIs) in developing countries, and conducted studies provide limited information regarding this impact. These prompted the author to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on RSIs in Turkey. RSIs and related indices of Turkey between 2016 and 2020 were collected. For evaluating the impact, RSIs whose 2020 measures differed significantly from the pre-COVID era were identified using the outlier detection technique and Regression analysis. K-means clustering was used to group RSIs according to their variation patterns in the study period. Results show that COVID-19 led to significant decreases in 26 RSIs, especially ones related to non-fatal road traffic injuries. COVID-19 resulted in a significant drop in road traffic crashes and related indices. Also, considerable changes in monthly and daily fatalities and injuries in 2020 were observed. Clustering results revealed that COVID-19 significantly impacts variation patterns of studied RSIs, especially ones related to non-fatal injuries. Clustering aided in identifying affected RSIs by COVID-19, which other used methods were unable to detect. COVID-19 led to significant changes in road safety indices in Turkey. Road authorities and researchers should be aware of these significant fluctuations in road safety data.
Journal article
International journal of injury control and safety promotion
09/2022
29
382 - 393
Department of Civil Engineering, Boğaziçi University, Istanbul, Turkey.
Humans, Wounds and Injuries, Accidents, Traffic, Turkey, COVID-19