Analysis of Covid restrictions’ influence on road traffic crashes and related road users’ behaviour in the Czech Republic

Kateřina Bucsuházy; Robert Zůvala; Jiří Ambros

doi:10.5604/01.3001.0053.6084

Authors

Kateřina Bucsuházy Transport Research Centre (CDV), Brno Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1247-6148
Robert Zůvala Transport Research Centre (CDV), Brno Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2038-7292
Jiří Ambros Transport Research Centre (CDV), Brno Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2707-6243

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5604/01.3001.0053.6084

Keywords:

pandemic, covid, road user, traffic accidents, behaviour, mobility, Czech Republic

Abstract

The Covid pandemic and following restrictions worldwide influence various aspects -lockdown does not only have economic consequences but is also associated with a change in population mobility. As well as the spread of a pandemic and the associated numbers of infections and deaths, policy responses and restrictions have also varied from country to country. Despite all the negative impacts of the Covid pandemic, the decrease in crash-related injuries may be seen as one of the positive impacts of lockdown politics. The change in crash characteristics during the Covid lockdown may provide new insights and help design countermeasures for road safety improvement. It is not sufficient to generalize findings across individual countries, there were different trends in crash frequency and severity during the Covid lockdown The main purpose of this study was to investigate the Covid restriction's impact on road safety in the Czech Republic. The retrospective analysis was performed using data the Police crash statistics. In addition to data from the main Covid periods (2020 and 5 months of 2021 data), crash data from 2016-2019 as the period unaffected by the Covid pandemic, were used as a control group. The study focused not only on the overall crash frequency but also on the analysis of the crash frequency according to the individual crash participants. Crash data did not indicate significant changes in risky behaviour. The mobility decrease was associated with decreased crash frequency, especially of vehicles and pedestrians. The crash numbers also reflect changes in how people spend time, respectively an increase in leisure time activities in some age groups and a change in usage of transport modes. Two-wheeled vehicle users (cyclists, motorcyclists) crash frequency was more influenced by seasonality. While the crash frequency of vehicles (personal vehicles and HGVs) and pedestrians was better correlated with mobility data, the cyclists and motorcyclists crash frequency were better correlated with temperature.

References

Adanu, E.K., Brown, D., Jones, S. and Parrish, A., (2021). How did the COVID-19 pandemic affect road crashes and crash outcomes in Alabama? Accident Analysis and Prevention, 163, 106428. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106428.

Ansari, S., Du, H., Naghdy, F., Sattar, A. (2023). Impact of Post-Covid-19 on driver behaviour: A perspective towards pandemic-sustained transportation. Journal of Transport and Health, 101563. DOI: 10.1016/j.jth.2022. 101563.

Barbosa, C., Cowell, A.J. and Dowd, W.N., (2021). Alcohol consumption in response to the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. Journal of Addiction Medicine, 15(4), 341-344. DOI: 10.1097/ADM.000000000000 0767.

Bauer, M., Dźwigoń, W., Richter, M., (2021). Personal safety of passengers during the first phase Covid-19 pandemic in the opinion of public transport drivers in Krakow. Archives of Transport, 59(3), 41-55. DOI: 10.5604/ 01.3001.0015.0090.

Brodeur, A., Cook, N., Wright, T., (2021). On the effects of COVID safer-at-home policies on social distancing, car crashes and pollution. Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, 102427. DOI: 10.1016/j.jeem. 2021.102427.

Calderon-Anyosa, R. J., Kaufman, J. S., (2020). Impact of COVID lockdown policy on homicide, suicide, and motor vehicle deaths in Peru. Preventive Medicine, 106331. DOI: 10.1016/j.ypmed.2020.106331.

Gonçalves, P.D., Moura, H.F., Do Amaral, R.A., Castaldelli-Maia, J.M. and Malbergier, A., (2020). Alcohol use and COVID-19: can we predict the impact of the pandemic on alcohol use based on the previous crises in the 21st century? A brief review. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 11, 1456. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyt.2020.5811 13.

Cui, Z., Zhu, M., Wang, S., Wang, P., Zhou, Y., Cao, Q., Kopca, C., Wang, Y., (2020). Traffic Performance Score for Measuring the Impact of COVID on Urban Mobility. arXiv:2007.00648.

Doucette, M. L., Tucker, A., Auguste, M. E., Watkins, A., Green, C., Pereira, F. E., Borrup, K.T., Shapiro, D., Lapidus, G., (2020). Initial impact of COVID’s stay-at-home order on motor vehicle traffic and crash patterns in Connecticut: an interrupted time series analysis. In jury Prevention, 27, 3-9. DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-043945.

Dong, X., Xie, K., Yang, H., (2022). How did COVID-19 impact driving behaviors and crash Severity? A multigroup structural equation modeling. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 172, 106687. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2022. 106687.

Eisenmann C, Nobis C, Kolarova V, Lenz B, Winkler C., (2021). Transport mode use during the COVID-19 lockdown period in Germany: The car became more important, public transport lost ground. Transport Policy, 103, 60-67. DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.01.012.

Egozi, L., Reiss-Hevlin, N., Dallasheh, R., Pardo, A., (2022). Couriers’ safety and health risks before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. International archives of occupational and environmental health, 1-10. DOI: 10.1007/s00420-021-01795-8.

Google LLC "Google COVID Community Mobility Reports". https://www.google.com/co vid19/mobility/.

Goolsbee, A., Syverson, C., (2021). Fear, lock down, and diversion: Comparing drivers of pandemic economic decline 2020. Journal of Public Economics, 193, 104311. DOI: 10.1016/j.jpubeco.2020.104311.

Hughes, J. E., Kaffine, D., Kaffine, L., (2023). Decline in traffic congestion increased accident severity in the wake of COVID. Transportation Research Record, 2677, 892-903. DOI: 10.1177/03611981221103239.

Katrakazas, C., Michelaraki, E., Sekadakis, M., Yannis, G., (2020). A descriptive analysis of the effect of the COVID pandemic on driving behavior and road safety. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 7, 100186. DOI: 10.1016/j.trip.2020.100186.

Lin, L., Shi, F., Li, W., (2021). Assessing Road Traffic Safety Under COVID: Inequality, Irregularity, and Severity. Scientific Reports, 11, 13147. DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-91392-z. [18] Lopetrone, E., Biondi, F. N., (2022). On the Effect of COVID-19 on Drivers’ Behavior: A Survey Study. Transportation Research Record, 2677, 742-750. DOI: 10.1177/036119812 21103866.

Michelaraki, E., Sekadakis, M., Katrakazas, C., Ziakopoulos, A., Yannis, G., (2022). One year of COVID-19: Impacts on safe driving behavior and policy recommendations. Journal of Safety Research, 84, 41-60. DOI: 10.1016/j.jsr.2022.10.007.

Meyer, M.W., (2020). COVID Lockdowns, So cial Distancing, and Fatal Car Crashes: More Deaths on Hobbesian Highways? Cambridge Journal of Evidence-Based Policing, 4, 238-259. DOI: 10.1007/s41887-020-00059-8.

Mokhtarimousavi, S., Kitali, A. E., Anderson, J. C., Alluri, P., Mehrabi, A., (2022). COVID-19 and Injury Severity of Drivers Involved in Run-Off-Road Crashes: Analyzing the Impact of Contributing Factors. Transportation Research Record, DOI: 10.1177/036119812 21097093.

Oguzoglu, U., (2020). COVID Lockdowns and Decline in Traffic Related Deaths and Injuries. IZA Discussion Papers No. 13278, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn.

Qureshi, A.I., Huang, W., Khan, S., Lobanova, I., Siddiq, F., Gomez, C.R., Suri, M.F.K., (2020). Mandated societal lockdown and road traffic accidents. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 146, 105747. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap. 2020.105747.

Patwary, A. L., Khattak, A. J., (2023). Crash harm before and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence for spatial heterogeneity in Tennessee. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 183, 106988. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2023. 106988.

Stavrinos, D., McManus, B., Mrug, S., He, H., Gresham, B., Albright, M. G., Svancara, A. M, Whittington, C, Underhill, A., White, D. M., (2020). Adolescent driving behavior before and during restrictions related to COVID. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 144, 105686. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2020.105747.

Sutherland, M., McKenney, M., Elkbuli, A., (2020). Vehicle related injury patterns during the COVID pandemic: What has changed? The American Journal of Emergency Medicine, 38, 1710-1714. DOI: 10.1016/j.ajem.2020.06.006.

Saladié, Ò., Bustamante, E., Gutiérrez, A., (2020). COVID lockdown and reduction of traffic accidents in Tarragona province, Spain. Transportation Research Interdisciplinary Perspectives, 8, 100218. DOI: 10.1016/j.trip.2020.100218.

Tucker, A., Marsh, K. L., (2021). Speeding through the pandemic: Perceptual and psychological factors associated with speeding during the COVID-19 stay-at-home period. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 159, 106225. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106225.

Vandoros, S., (2022). Covid, Lockdowns and Motor Vehicle Collisions: Empirical Evidence from Greece. Injury Prevention, 28, 81-85. DOI: 10.1136/injuryprev-2020-044139.

Vanlaar, W. G., Woods-Fry, H., Barrett, H., Lyon, C., Brown, S., Wicklund, C., Robertson, R. D., (2021). The impact of COVID-19 on road safety in Canada and the United States. Accident Analysis and Prevention, 160, 106324. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2021.106324.

Vickerman R., (2021). Will Covid-19 put the public back in public transport? A UK perspec tive. Transport Policy. 103, 95-102. DOI: 10.1016/j.tranpol.2021.01.005.

Vingilis, E., Beirness, D., Boase, P., Byrne, P., Johnson, J., Jonah, B., Mann, R.E., Rapoport, J. S., Wickens, Ch., M. Wiesenthal, D. L., (2020). Coronavirus disease 2019: What could be the effects on road safety? Accident Analysis and Prevention, 144, 105687. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2020.105687.

Warren, M. S., Skillman, S. W., (2020). Mobility changes in response to COVID. arXiv:2003.14228.

Alhajyaseen, W. K. M., Almukdad, A., Hussain, Q., Almallah, M., Al Malki, M. A., Singaravelu, J., Zammataro, S., (2022) Road safety status during COVID-19 pandemic: exploring public and road safety expert’s opinions, International Journal of Injury Control and Safety Promotion, 29, 135-151, DOI: 10.1080/17457300.2021.1962915.

Watson-Brown, N., Truelove, V., Parker, E., Davey, J., (2021). Drink driving during the COVID-19 pandemic. Transportation research part F: traffic psychology and behaviour, 78, 369-380. DOI: 10.1016/j.trf.2021.02.020.

Yasin, Y.J., Grivna, M. and Abu-Zidan, F.M., (2021). Global impact of COVID-19 pandemic on road traffic collisions. World journal of emergency surgery, 16, 51. DOI: 10.1186/s13017-021-00395-8.