Road Accidents Analysis with Climatic Approach (Case study: Ahwaz-Susangerd Road)

According to statistics thousands of people die or become disabled in road accidents every year. Several factors may play a role in the occurrence of accidents, among which are road geometric design, environmental conditions and human factors. Among the environmental factors that affect the safety and sustainability of transportation, we can mention the role of climatic phenomena such as precipitation, wind, temperature, fog, dust and humidity.
The axis of Ahwaz-Susangerd, 55 km long, is among the main roads linking to Hamidieh, Susangerd, Hoveizeh and Bostan through Ahwaz. In this study, the analysis of road accidents has been conducted with climatic attitude and in order to investigate the relationship between spatial distribution of accidents and elements-climatic phenomena such as precipitation, fog and dust, temperature, humidity and wind. In order to investigate the role of climatic phenomena in the occurrence of accidents, the hourly meteorological data of Ahwaz, Abadan, Bostan and Hamidieh weather stations have been used and the meteorological situation of the moment of accident has been extracted through interpolation of these data. Also, police information of road accidents has been used. The road map of Southwest of Khuzestan with a scale of 250,000: 1 has been selected as the base map.
Using these data for a three-year period (2005-2007), a map of dispersion of accidents in different atmospheric conditions is provided. Based on the results from the maps of accident risk, the highest probability of accident risk during rain falls is in 9, 16, 21, 22 and 25, fog and dust in 10, 29, 35 and 49, the maximum temperature in 20, 25, 35, 43 and 49, wind in 10, 21, 22 and 43, and humidity in 9, 35, 45 and 50 kilometers of the road.