The role of climatic elements in traffic accidents in Anbar Governorate

Abstract

Climatic phenomena are one of the most important problems facing the Iraqi environment in western Iraq, specifically Anbar Governorate, especially dusty phenomena, rain, fog and temperatures, which have greatly affected the increase in the number of traffic accidents in Anbar Governorate, because it is related to the visibility of vehicle drivers, and based on the responsibility that falls on the geographer's responsibility was chosen as a study that shows the size of the problem and its close relationship to the climatic and environmental factors that cause traffic accidents. Through collecting and analyzing the data of the General Traffic Directorate, it was found that 1076 traffic accidents for the period from (2010-2018) 148 accidents were due to bad climatic conditions. The transport departments in Anbar Governorate indicated that the phenomenon of dust storms has a negative impact on the movement of transport, especially the Ramadi-Rutba, Ramadi-Al-Qaim, Haditha-Baiji roads, where dust storms caused 47 accidents, representing 4.3% of the total accidents, and fog recorded 63 accidents, or 5.8%, while accidents were caused by rain and temperatures 31 and 7 by 2.8% and 0.6%, respectively.