Assessing road safety levels in a road network of the basis of unlocalised accident data

In Italy, road authorities have been obliged under law to maintain sufficient levels of information regarding safety condition and quality. Though this, safety data are not always reliable and assessing safety levels in a road network can be often very difficult due to the absence of well-localised accident data. Therefore, the management of road safety interventions becomes more and more complex and empirical. In the light of the above-mentioned problems, the objective of this paper was to propose a method able to rank, on the basis of safety levels, the different sections of a road network in which accident data gathering has been affected by localization issues and defects. An experimental investigation has been carried out in the road network of the Province of Reggio Calabria – Southern Italy; for each section, alignment, road conditions, accident level and where possible localizations have been examined for many years. Statistical analyses have been performed. When possible, accident data, traffic flows, operational speeds and general statistics have been synergistically analysed. Once set up the methodology, modelling studies have been completed through the application to the selected road sections in order to assess road safety levels and support road safety interventions.