Abstract
Certain features of imported second-hand cars (e.g., age, degree of wear and tear, technical design) can increase their likelihood for traffic crashes. Three official datasets which cover an eight year period (2008–2015) are used to test the connection between importation of second-hand cars and different types of traffic crashes. The traffic crashes database was provided by the Traffic Department of the General Inspectorate of Romanian Police (GIRPTD). The car registration database was provided by Driving-License and Vehicles-Registration Direction (DLVRD). Right-hand driving (RHD) cars database was provided by the Romanian Automotive Registry (RAR). A spatio-temporal visualization of data was performed using Geographic Information System (GIS) while for the statistical analysis we use regression models and Pearson-Correlation-coefficient. The analysis suggests that a significant part of the variation in the volume of traffic accidents can be explained by the volume of imported second-hand cars at the county level. Moreover, an even stronger direct relation exists between the number of imported second-hand cars and Severe Traffic Accidents but also in the case of RHD imported second-hand cars. The overall impact of imported second-hand cars on the traffic safety in Romania is significant but small in comparison to other types of car registration. Study results belong to the category of empirical evidence production which can improve the quality of existing traffic regulations focused both on organizing and ensuring traffic safety, and on the policy of sustainable transport infrastructure development.
Highlights
The mobility regime in Romania has suffered important changes in the aftermath of the communist regime collapse, moving towards increasing spatial mobility and decreasing level of traffic safety [1]
Right-hand driving (RHD) cars database was provided by the Romanian Automotive Registry (RAR)
The analysis suggests that a significant part of the variation in the volume of traffic accidents can be explained by the volume of imported second-hand cars at the county level
Summary
The mobility regime in Romania has suffered important changes in the aftermath of the communist regime collapse, moving towards increasing spatial mobility and decreasing level of traffic safety [1]. A first possible explanation is that price is a central element in the trade with imported second-hand cars [3,4] and that the major options to keep the prices low are either to import cars with a high degree of wear and tear [4,5] or to ship in older cars [6,7] Along these lines, several studies argue that passenger(s) of the older cars tend to be in higher risk of injuries [8] compared to the passengers in the newer vehicles in case of collusion [9,10,11] or that various attributes of the vehicles involved in traffic crashes related to the wear level (e.g., higher mileage, undisclosed crash damages) influences to a large extent the likelihood and severity of a traffic crash [11,12,13,14,15]. While the existing research provides detailed accounts of how and why imported second-hand cars are comparatively predisposed to road crashes, it focuses on specific regions or countries from Africa or America which have a long tradition of importing second-hand cars and ignores other areas where the phenomenon is newer but it has at least similar momentum and significance
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