Factors Affecting the Severity of Motor Vehicle Traffic Crashes in Tunisia

We investigate the contribution of several variables concerning the severity of accidents involving vehicle occupant and pedestrian victims in Tunisia. In order to investigate the effect of various explanatory variables, Odds Ratio (OR) effects are considered for both serious injury accidents and fatal accidents. The empirical results are of great variety. The vehicle-occupant severity model indicates that male drivers are associated with higher severity levels as compared to female drivers. Added to that, accidents occurring in rainy conditions increase the likelihood of fatal injuries but have no significant effect on other injury severity levels. Among driver contributory factors, a driver under the influence of alcohol or drug is associated with an increased risk of sustaining fatal injuries compared to other driver contributory factors. The season factor shows that accident severity during the summer season is high. Among time of accident, daytime periods indicate a high likelihood of severe injuries as compared to nighttime periods. Another finding of the study is that the day of accident and region of accident increases the probability of severe injury. Findings allow public authorities in Tunisia to target the specific populations who are at increased risk and factors that increase the risk of sustaining severe injuries. The adopted methodology is transferable to other low- and middle-income countries around the world and other types of events for traffic safety where sufficient crash data is available.