FREQUENCY OF CO-RECORDING OF ROAD-RELATED CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS AND DRIVER BEHAVIOUR-RELATED CONTRIBUTORY FACTORS

Globally, the number of fatalities and injuries resulting from road traffic crashes remains unacceptably high despite numerous measures implemented to improve road safety. The development of such measures is, among other things, based on the analysis of contributory factors, which describe the reasons and circumstances that directly or indirectly led to the occurrence of a road traffic crash or influenced the severity of its consequences. Previous studies have primarily focused on analysing individual contributory factors, while their co-recording has received considerably less attention. The number of contributory factors identified in an individual road traffic crash depends not only on the crash circumstances but also on the knowledge and expertise of the police officers conducting the crash investigation. In road traffic crashes where at least two contributory factors have been identified, it is possible to analyse the frequency of their co-recording. The aim of this study is to compare the frequency of recording selected driver behaviour-related contributory factors in road traffic crashes with and without a recorded specific road-related contributory factor. The analysis was conducted using national fatal and injury road traffic crash data from the Republic of Serbia covering the period from 2016 to 2025. The results indicate differences in the frequency of recording individual driver behaviour-related factors in crashes with and without the specific road-related factors recorded. For example, malfunctioning traffic signals are frequently recorded together with failure to yield the right-of-way, while inappropriate speed is the driver behaviour-related contributory factor frequently recorded in combination with various road-related contributory factors. The findings may contribute to a better understanding of crash circumstances, provide a basis for improving the recording of contributory factors in road traffic crash databases, and support the development of road safety measures.