Traffic accident

The steam cart Kunho , a distant ancestor of the car, lost control and crashed into a wall (the driver survived). The first known collision of a road motor vehicle with someone fatal was the British scientist Mary Ward , who in 1869 fell out of a steam car right under the wheel. Also recorded the explosion of a steam-powered boiler with victims, which happened already in 1834, which, according to our traffic rules, is also considered an accident.

These cases, apparently, were statistics, and not something outstanding - since 1865 the Locomotive Act was in force in the toughest edition: speed limits of 2 miles per hour in the city and 4 outside the city, and when driving with a trailer, a person with red flag. Someone John Leaming estimated that in the period 1863-1870 in Britain there were 470 transport deaths per year per 1 million people: 76 on the railway, 143 on the roads and 251 on water transport (for comparison, 1963 - 325 = 10 + 278 + 37 )

In the 1920s, the USA introduced the concept of compulsory motor third - party liability insurance - insurance of damage to other people's property in road accidents ^[6] .

Bela Bareni from the 1920s became the father of passive safety - measures to reduce the severity of accidents ^[7] . The first Mercedes, built on its principles, was released in 1959.

In 1965, Ralph Nader 's book Dangerous at Any Speed ​​was published, drawing attention to the insufficient active and passive safety of the then American cars, and poor traffic organization.

In 1997, Sweden launched a bold program to eradicate fatal accidents, and over the past 20 years managed to reduce its already good results by half, to 30 killed per million (Russia - about 150).

In October 2005, the UN General Assembly invited UN member states and the international community to announce the annual World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims ^[8] .

In May 2016, the first fatal accident with an unmanned vehicle occurred, where it is reliably known that the autopilot was turned on - in Florida, the Tesla Model S drove into a tractor that turned left ^{[9] [10]} . In China, in January 2016, there was a similar accident, but Tesla did not admit that the autopilot worked ^[9] .

• collision
• rollover
• collision with a standing vehicle
• hitting an obstacle
• pedestrian collision
• hit a cyclist
• animal collision
• cargo accidents
• other types of accidents (incidents not related to the above types)

• dynamic shock caused by an almost instantaneous stop of the vehicle
• vehicle wreckage
• prolonged compression syndrome when clamping injured parts of vehicles
• exposure to high temperature and gases in case of fire
• exposure to hazardous substances with the participation of special vehicles carrying dangerous goods

Risk factors include:

• violation of traffic rules, including:
  • alcohol intoxication ; ^[2]
  • drug intoxication;
  • excess of permissible speed;
  • non-use of seat belts; ^[2]
  • failure to use special child restraints;
  • use of a faulty vehicle .
• driver fatigue (the driver may fall asleep while driving );
• unauthorized intentional use of a vehicle to persons who do not have a license to drive a certain category of vehicles;
• the use of the vehicle by persons who have contraindications to driving a certain type of vehicle (both intentionally and due to an imperceptible deterioration in health);
• difficult weather conditions;
• poor quality of road surface, pedestrian infrastructure;
• lack of measures to calm movement on a difficult site;
• various driver distractions ^[2]
  • talking on a cell phone or text messaging;
  • conversation with passengers;
  • smoking while driving ;
  • eating while driving ;
  • control of electronic devices (for example, radio, CD player or GPS navigator) while driving;
  • listening to music;
  • animals in the cabin.
• high-heeled shoes.

Studies have shown that drivers who listen to music while riding are more prone to speeding and more likely to get into accidents, as they become inattentive.

In 1964 , David Solomon investigated the dependence of the collision frequency of a car on the difference in its speed from the average flow rate and presented the results in graphical form ^[12] .

In 1968 , Julie Cyrillo conducted a similar study and obtained close results ^[13] . Two possible problems in the studies of Solomon and Cyrilo were that:

1. the reports they used by the police, drivers and witnesses were inaccurate and unreliable,
2.  
   many low-speed collisions most likely included cars that were turning or had just left on the road ^[14] .

The data of Solomon and Sirillo were generally confirmed in a subsequent work in 1970 using automated data processing ^[15] , but it was found that accidents involving turning cars accounted for 44% of all accidents, and their exclusion sharply reduced the role of factors leading to the U-shaped curve of the Solomon curve ^[16] .

In 1991 , Wildes, Rambold, and Lining, analyzing reports of 707 drivers in Australia, did not find a connection between traffic below the flow rate and an increase in the frequency of accidents ^[17] .

According to the traffic police , in 2012 in Russia there were about 200 thousand accidents in which nearly 28 thousand people died and 250 thousand were injured. On September 23, 2009, Interior Minister Rashid Nurgaliyev stated that “as practice shows, more than 80 percent of all accidents occur due to the fault of the drivers themselves, as a result of which the“ human factor ”is considered as a key area” ^[22] .

The percentage of accidents in Russia in 2010 according to the traffic police:

• due to traffic violations by drivers of vehicles - 85% (including those who were intoxicated). Of them:
  • 25% of accidents occur due to non-compliance with the speed limit by drivers on the roads.
  • 15% of accidents occur due to violations of the rules of the intersection.
  • 10% of traffic accidents take exit to the oncoming lane.
• 5.94% (11,845 out of 199,431) due to traffic violations by drivers of vehicles while intoxicated
• due to traffic violations by pedestrians - 20.15% (31 969 of 199 431)
• due to unsatisfactory condition of streets and roads - 20.99% (41 863 out of 199,431)
• due to the operation of technically faulty vehicles - 0.57% (1,127 out of 199,431)

The amount of shares is more than 100%, since in some accidents more than one reason is involved.

In 2010, accidents in the WHO European Region (including the Russian Federation) resulted in the deaths of more than 92 thousand people ^[24] .

In most European countries, people who died within 30 days after an accident are also considered dead. However, in Moldova, those who died within 1 year after an accident are considered dead, in Slovakia - within 1 day, in Portugal and Albania - at the scene of an accident.

USA

• In the United States , despite the prevalence of firearms, the probability of being shot is twenty times less than the chance of dying in an accident. In turn, the number of fatal accidents per capita in the United States is two times lower than in Russia. ^{[32] [ significance of fact? ]} .

In 2017, 37,133 people died in traffic accidents in the United States, which corresponds to 11.4 people per 100,000.

A road user who caused an accident causing serious bodily harm or death of a person bears criminal or administrative liability that arises when the driver’s actions contain an administrative offense or a crime (usually committed through negligence ) . Both in the first and in the second case, grounds may arise for civil liability (liability for compensation for harm).

According to Russian law, a car is recognized as a source of increased danger , which means that the owner of the car, in order to avoid liability, must prove that the damage was caused by the intent of the victim or by force majeure . That is, the owner of the car, who shot down a person on it, can not compensate for the damage only if it proves that the victim himself rushed under the wheels or the collision occurred, for example, due to an unexpected gust of wind. The negligence of the injured pedestrian cannot help the driver avoid responsibility for causing harm to life and health. At the same time, however, the harm caused as a result of the interaction of sources of increased danger to their owners is compensated on a common basis, that is, taking into account their guilt (article 1064 of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation ).

There are situations when the injured party commits lynching over a driver who has committed an accident, including with the help of firearms ^[33] .

In many countries, failure to provide assistance to an accident victim leads to liability for drivers. With a large number of witnesses to road accidents, a psychological effect arises - the “ witness effect ” - which prevents the provision of assistance.

In many countries, including Russia, various normative and legal acts establish lists of persons obliged to provide assistance. Among them: medical staff, rescuers, instructors of medical special training, etc. Moreover, they are obliged to provide assistance, even if they are not on duty. The criminal law of most countries provides for liability for the failure to provide assistance to such persons.

• Road safety
• Compulsory liability insurance of vehicle owners
• Rabberking is a feature of human behavior that often causes minor accidents
• Amaxophobia
• Auto-casing (a type of fraud )

• Global Road Safety Report // World Health Organization, 2009, ISBN 978-92-4-4563847 ( pdf )

• http: //264uk.rf/calc.php / Calculator for determining the severity of health damage after an accident
• Accident and Mortality in Russia / Demoscope Weekly, No. 527-528, October 15-28, 2012
• Medical assistance in case of an accident / ”Automobile Petersburg”
• First Aid for Accidents / Accidents in Perm
• How to behave in the event of an accident? , Avariya.Net, 2014