One for the road: the determinants of the road fatalities in the European Union

Abstract

Abstract Traffic fatalities are a severe problem. The European Commission estimated that one in four road accidents are related to alcohol consumption. It is also shown that alcohol changes perceptions and is reflected in the driver’s reflexes. This study aims to determine the factors that lead to changes in the mortality rate due to car accidents. The dataset was retrieved from different official sources depending on the type of variable. For the time-invariant variables were used two official sources from which the drivers are informed with the main road rules from a certain country. Using the Arellano-Bover / Blundell-Bond linear dynamic panel-data estimation on 22 European Union countries between 2012 to 2018, the results showed that the road safety laws have a meaningful and significant impact on road fatalities. Alcohol legal limit has a positive impact on road fatalities, which shows that if the legal alcohol limit is non-zero, the road fatalities increase. Another important result is related to young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET), which directly influences road fatalities. This result shows the importance of investment in education. At the same time, the results underline the importance of investments in infrastructure, as the length of the highways increases leads to a decrease in road fatalities.