Brazilian road traffic fatalities: a spatial and environmental analysis.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Road traffic injuries (RTI) are a major public health epidemic killing
thousands of people daily. Low and middle-income countries, such as Brazil, have the
highest annual rates of road traffic fatalities. In order to improve road safety,
this study mapped road traffic fatalities on a Brazilian highway to determine the
main environmental factors affecting road traffic fatalities. METHODS AND FINDINGS:
Four techniques were utilized to identify and analyze RTI hotspots. We used spatial
analysis by points by applying kernel density estimator, and wavelet analysis to identify
the main hot regions. Additionally, built environment analysis, and principal component
analysis were conducted to verify patterns contributing to crash occurrence in the
hotspots. Between 2007 and 2009, 379 crashes were notified, with 466 fatalities on
BR277. Higher incidence of crashes occurred on sections of highway with double lanes
(ratio 2∶1). The hotspot analysis demonstrated that both the eastern and western regions
had higher incidences of crashes when compared to the central region. Through the
built environment analysis, we have identified five different patterns, demonstrating
that specific environmental characteristics are associated with different types of
fatal crashes. Patterns 2 and 4 are constituted mainly by predominantly urban characteristics
and have frequent fatal pedestrian crashes. Patterns 1, 3 and 5 display mainly rural
characteristics and have higher prevalence of vehicular collisions. In the built environment
analysis, the variables length of road in urban area, limited lighting, double lanes
roadways, and less auxiliary lanes were associated with a higher incidence of fatal
crashes. CONCLUSIONS: By combining different techniques of analyses, we have identified
numerous hotspots and environmental characteristics, which governmental or regulatory
agencies could make use to plan strategies to reduce RTI and support life-saving policies.
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Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15376Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1371/journal.pone.0087244Publication Info
de Andrade, Luciano; Vissoci, João Ricardo Nickenig; Rodrigues, Clarissa Garcia; Finato,
Karen; Carvalho, Elias; Pietrobon, Ricardo; ... de Barros Carvalho, Maria Dalva (2014). Brazilian road traffic fatalities: a spatial and environmental analysis. PLoS One, 9(1). pp. e87244. 10.1371/journal.pone.0087244. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/15376.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
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Catherine Ann Staton
Associate Professor of Emergency Medicine
Catherine Staton MD MSc
Dr. Staton is an Associate Professor in Emergency Medicine (EM), Neurosurgery & Global
Health with tenure at Duke University. She is the Director of the GEMINI (Global EM
Innovation & Implementation) Research Center and the EM Vice Chair of Research Strategy
& Faculty Development. Her research integrates innovative implementation methods into
health systems globally to improve access to acute care. In 2012, with an injury registry
at Kilimanjaro Chr
Joao Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci
Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine
Joao Ricardo Nickenig Vissoci, MSc, PhD is an Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine,
Neurosurgery and Global Health. He is the Chief of the Division of Translational Health
Sciences in the Department of Emergency Medicine, co-Director of the Global Emergency
Medicine Innovation and Implementation (GEMINI) Research Center and a faculty member
of the Research Design and Analysis Core (RDAC) in the Duke Global Health Institute.
Dr. Vissoci has a background in social psychology and data scien
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