IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i14p8033-d596790.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Road Safety as a Public Health Problem: Case of Ecuador in the Period 2000–2019

Author

Listed:
  • Fabricio Esteban Espinoza-Molina

    (Transportation Engineering Research Group, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Cuenca 010102, Ecuador
    University Institute of Automobile Research Francisco Aparicio Izquierdo (INSIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28031 Madrid, Spain)

  • Christian Fernando Ojeda-Romero

    (Transportation Engineering Research Group, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Cuenca 010102, Ecuador)

  • Henry David Zumba-Paucar

    (Transportation Engineering Research Group, Universidad Politécnica Salesiana (UPS), Cuenca 010102, Ecuador)

  • Giovanny Pillajo-Quijia

    (Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería y Diseño Industrial (ETSIDI), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28012 Madrid, Spain)

  • Blanca Arenas-Ramírez

    (University Institute of Automobile Research Francisco Aparicio Izquierdo (INSIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28031 Madrid, Spain)

  • Francisco Aparicio-Izquierdo

    (University Institute of Automobile Research Francisco Aparicio Izquierdo (INSIA), Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), 28031 Madrid, Spain)

Abstract

Background: Road safety is a significant public health problem because it causes negative consequences on victims and families. The objective was to analyze the most significant changes in traffic crashes in Ecuador during the period from 2000 to 2019. With data obtained from the National Institute of Statistics and Census, we performed the analysis to identify: the number of traffic crashes, the number of victims, and other study variables. Methods: Descriptive and analytical statistics and the contrast of proportions were used to analyze data from 2000 to 2019. Results: According to the ideal joinpoint analysis model, there was a significant decrease in the number of recorded traffic accidents from 2015 to 2019 of −8.54 per year, while the tendency to die increased in females (2.05 per year) and males (3.29 per year). The most common crash was a collision, and the automobile appeared as the most involved vehicle from 2015 to 2019. The hypothesis test contrast is used to determine if statistically significant differences exist between age groups by gender of the driver injured in the period 2017–2018. Conclusions: This study determines the most significant changes in the variables related to traffic crashes, where mortality due to this cause in the last four years has had a growth rate of 1.8% compared to collisions that presented a rate of −31.12%. The contrast of the hypothesis test shows significant differences in the injury level between males and female drivers, depending on the age group.

Suggested Citation

  • Fabricio Esteban Espinoza-Molina & Christian Fernando Ojeda-Romero & Henry David Zumba-Paucar & Giovanny Pillajo-Quijia & Blanca Arenas-Ramírez & Francisco Aparicio-Izquierdo, 2021. "Road Safety as a Public Health Problem: Case of Ecuador in the Period 2000–2019," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-20, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:8033-:d:596790
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8033/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/14/8033/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Sierra, Jaime Cevallos, 2016. "Estimating road transport fuel consumption in Ecuador," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 92(C), pages 359-368.
    2. Francisco Calvo-Poyo & José Navarro-Moreno & Juan de Oña, 2020. "Road Investment and Traffic Safety: An International Study," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(16), pages 1-15, August.
    3. Oster, Clinton V. & Strong, John S., 2013. "Analyzing road safety in the United States," Research in Transportation Economics, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 98-111.
    4. P. M. Lerman, 1980. "Fitting Segmented Regression Models by Grid Search," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 29(1), pages 77-84, March.
    5. Shahram Heydari & Adrian Hickford & Rich McIlroy & Jeff Turner & Abdulgafoor M. Bachani, 2019. "Road Safety in Low-Income Countries: State of Knowledge and Future Directions," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(22), pages 1-29, November.
    6. David Bishai & Asma Quresh & Prashant James & Abdul Ghaffar, 2006. "National road casualties and economic development," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 15(1), pages 65-81, January.
    7. repec:cup:judgdm:v:1:y:2006:i::p:48-63 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Christine R. Harris & Michael Jenkins & Dale Glaser, 2006. "Gender differences in risk assessment: Why do women take fewer risks than men?," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 1, pages 48-63, July.
    9. Giovanny Pillajo-Quijia & Blanca Arenas-Ramírez & Camino González-Fernández & Francisco Aparicio-Izquierdo, 2020. "Influential Factors on Injury Severity for Drivers of Light Trucks and Vans with Machine Learning Methods," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(4), pages 1-28, February.
    10. Bose, D. & Segui-Gomez, M. & Crandall, J.R., 2011. "Vulnerability of female drivers involved in motor vehicle crashes: An analysis of US population at risk," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 101(12), pages 2368-2373.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Luis Alfonso Moreno-Ponce & Ana María Pérez-Zuriaga & Alfredo García, 2025. "Predictive Models and GIS for Road Safety: Application to a Segment of the Chone–Flavio Alfaro Road," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-24, May.
    2. Juan Pablo Montero-Salgado & Jose Muñoz-Sanz & Blanca Arenas-Ramírez & Cristina Alén-Cordero, 2022. "Identification of the Mechanical Failure Factors with Potential Influencing Road Accidents in Ecuador," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(13), pages 1-27, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Shaw, Williams & Wang, Guangmin & Ampofo, Gideon Kwaku Minua & Befeke, Chenyi Larry & Botei, Diana, 2025. "An analysis of the symmetric and asymmetric relationship between road traffic casualties and economic development of Ghana," Journal of Transport Geography, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    2. Nicoletta D'Angelo, 2025. "Detecting Changes in Space‐Varying Parameters of Local Poisson Point Processes," Environmetrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 36(5), July.
    3. Adham Alsharkawi & Mohammad Al-Fetyani & Maha Dawas & Heba Saadeh & Musa Alyaman, 2021. "Poverty Classification Using Machine Learning: The Case of Jordan," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(3), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Tan, Xiujie & Xiao, Ziwei & Liu, Yishuang & Taghizadeh-Hesary, Farhad & Wang, Banban & Dong, Hanmin, 2022. "The effect of green credit policy on energy efficiency: Evidence from China," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 183(C).
    5. Batara Surya & Hamsina Hamsina & Ridwan Ridwan & Baharuddin Baharuddin & Firman Menne & Andi Tenri Fitriyah & Emil Salim Rasyidi, 2020. "The Complexity of Space Utilization and Environmental Pollution Control in the Main Corridor of Makassar City, South Sulawesi, Indonesia," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-41, November.
    6. Suwon Song & Chun Gun Park, 2019. "Alternative Algorithm for Automatically Driving Best-Fit Building Energy Baseline Models Using a Data—Driven Grid Search," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(24), pages 1-11, December.
    7. Sotiris Vandoros & Georgios Kavetsos & Paul Dolan, 2014. "Greasy Roads: The Impact of Bad Financial News on Road Traffic Accidents," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(3), pages 556-566, March.
    8. Tomašković Mladen & Završki Ivica, 2024. "Analysis of the road safety in the EU countries and the impact of PBM on its improvement," Organization, Technology and Management in Construction, Sciendo, vol. 16(1), pages 123-135.
    9. Tahira Kootbodien & Nisha Naicker & Kerry S. Wilson & Raj Ramesar & Leslie London, 2020. "Trends in Suicide Mortality in South Africa, 1997 to 2016," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(6), pages 1-16, March.
    10. Hélène Laurent & Marc Sangnier & Carole Treibich, 2021. "Traffic safety and norms of compliance with rules: An exploratory study," Economics Bulletin, AccessEcon, vol. 41(4), pages 2464-2483.
    11. Jonathan Readshaw & Stefano Giani, 2020. "Using Company Specific Headlines and Convolutional Neural Networks to Predict Stock Fluctuations," Papers 2006.12426, arXiv.org.
    12. Terneus Páez, Carlos Francisco & Viteri Salazar, Oswaldo, 2020. "Analysis of agro-food transport in Ecuador faced with a possible reduction in the subsidy of diesel," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 144(C).
    13. Erjia Ge & Yee Leung, 2013. "Detection of crossover time scales in multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis," Journal of Geographical Systems, Springer, vol. 15(2), pages 115-147, April.
    14. Venera R. Khalikova & Mushan Jin & Shauhrat S. Chopra, 2021. "Gender in sustainability research: Inclusion, intersectionality, and patterns of knowledge production," Journal of Industrial Ecology, Yale University, vol. 25(4), pages 900-912, August.
    15. Borker, Girija, 2024. "Understanding the constraints to women’s use of urban public transport in developing countries," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 180(C).
    16. Terneus Páez, Carlos Francisco & Viteri Salazar, Oswaldo, 2021. "Analysis of biofuel production in Ecuador from the perspective of the water-food-energy nexus," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    17. Michael Grimm & Carole Treibich, 2013. "Determinants Of Road Traffic Crash Fatalities Across Indian States," Health Economics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 22(8), pages 915-930, August.
    18. repec:plo:pmed00:1000228 is not listed on IDEAS
    19. Anshul Sinha & Sanjay Kumar Singh & VijayLakshmi Singh, 2021. "Linkage Between Road Safety and Economic Development: A Case Study of India," Metamorphosis: A Journal of Management Research, , vol. 20(1), pages 7-15, June.
    20. Bucarey, Víctor & Labbé, Martine & Morales, Juan M. & Pineda, Salvador, 2021. "An exact dynamic programming approach to segmented isotonic regression," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 105(C).
    21. José Castillo-Manzano & Mercedes Castro-Nuño & Xavier Fageda, 2014. "Can health public expenditure reduce the tragic consequences of road traffic accidents? The EU-27 experience," The European Journal of Health Economics, Springer;Deutsche Gesellschaft für Gesundheitsökonomie (DGGÖ), vol. 15(6), pages 645-652, July.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:14:p:8033-:d:596790. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.