The survey on motor transport accidents
in Liepāja city and region in comparison
to Ventspils city and region. During 1998-2000
E. Striks, D. Kaju, U. Nēliuss
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Liepāja and Ventspils are the two biggest cities in Kurzeme. The population in Liepāja and Liepāja region is 100.000 people; In Ventspils and Ventspils region it is respectively 60.000 people. During the period of 1998-2000 the number of accidents as the result of which there were different kinds of death practically has not changed in Liepāja and Ventspils.
The economic situation in Latvia is being entirely improved (growth of purchasing power of the population in accordance with the number of cars and the proper transport business is being developed; it means that the transport flow is growing) that would involve the growth of road accidents.
Although it is not so. It can be explained by the more severe penal system for offenders, the improvement of condition of roads, as well as the rise of civic consciousness.
Results of the research are produced in diagrams, where we can find the following information about casualties: sex, age, condition of injuries, and character of trauma.
In the first two figures you can see the total number of road accidents, fatalities and casualties compared. We can see there are no substantial numeral changes in these proportions; a stable trend of decrease in number of fatalities is observed in Ventspils solely.
In the next diagram we can see there is a persistent trend of diminution of number of fatalities when drunk.
The following diagram shows the character of trauma of casualty depending on his/her locality during road accident.
The last diagram indicates the highest fatality rate in the age group of 20-40.
Hence we may conclude:
Primarily: notwithstanding the increase of additional resources, the number of road accidents, fatalities and casualties does not change substantially, however it remains very high.
Secondly: the above mentioned has several reasons:
The rise of civic consciousness;
The introduction of more severe penal system for offenders;
The amelioration of road condition;
The improvement of performance quality of the road police;
The betterment of technical conditions of the car fleet etc.
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