Analysis of the Relations between the Road Category and the Fatality of Road Transport Accidents

Improving of road infrastructure results in raised transport efficiency and reduced number and fatality of road accidents; it also has a favourable impact on the course of logistic operations. The current relations between the road category in the general meaning and the fatality of road transport accidents, which significantly affect the so-called external costs of transport, have been analysed in this paper. These costs predominantly depend on the risk of an accident with casualties and on the unit cost of a road accident. Indicators have been defined that may facilitate quantitative describing of the fatality of accidents and the share of accidents in the external costs of transport. Numerical values have been determined that describe the current accident hazards on Polish roads of specific categories. The trend lines of the changes in safety indicators facilitate the forecasting inference, which is indispensable for planning the development of road transport and for moulding the external costs of transport. Particular attention has been given to results of the application of the theory of risk to the defining of the relation between the road category and the fatality of accidents. The calculated risk indicator values show quite stable trend lines, which may facilitate the use of such values for the evaluation of the fatality of accidents on roads of various categories.