Study of Fatal Traffic Accidents in Asia Pacific Countries

The traffic accident rates in many Asia Pacific countries are high, but little is known about how these rates are influenced by the social and developmental status of the countries. Identification of these factors is an essential task in prescription and prioritization of safety treatment programs so that proper planning and efficient budgeting can be implemented. The fixed-effect negative binomial model was used to examine the effect of socioeconomic and infrastructure factors on fatal road accidents in the Asia Pacific region. Making use of accident data from 1980 to 1994 for 41 countries in the region, the model shows that size of road network, per capita gross national product, population, and number of registered vehicles are important factors that increase accident occurrence. However, fatal accidents tend to decrease with time in all countries.