The effects on accidents of compulsory use of running lights during daylight in Sweden

• The report is an attempt to describe the effects on accidents of compulsory use of running lights - low beam or special lamps - during daylight in Sweden.The study is carried out on police reported traffic accidents with personal injury in Sweden. The before and after periods are two years before and two years after the operative day of the law, October 1st 1977.The use of running lights in the before-period was roughly speaking 50 % and in the after-period over 95 %.The basic assumption is that the use of running lights in daylight influences multiple accidents in daylight and only those. The method used is to study the relation of daylight to darkness numbers of multiple accidents. The corresponding relation for single vehicle accidents is taken as control.The estimated total effect depends both on the subdivision of accident data and the method used for accidents with unprotected road users. The estimates vary from 6 to 13 % reduction - from the before-period to the after period - of multiple accidents during daylight or 450 to 1100 less police reported accidents with personal injury per year. The estimated effects are not significant on a 5 % level.

Subject headings

TEKNIK OCH TEKNOLOGIER  -- Samhällsbyggnadsteknik -- Infrastrukturteknik (hsv//swe)

ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY  -- Civil Engineering -- Infrastructure Engineering (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Dipped headlight

Daylight

Legislation

Accident

Sweden

Before and after study

Statistics

Accident rate

Change

English

SVT

912 Road: Vehicle lighting

912 Road: Vehicle lighting

80 Road: Traffic safety and accidents

80 Road: Traffic safety and accidents

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

rap (subject category)