Globally, road traffic accidents are an important public health concern which needs to be tackled. A multidisciplinary approach is required to understand what causes them and to provide the evidence for policy support. In Spain, one of the roads with the highest fatality rate is the crosstown road, a particular type of rural road in which urban and interurban traffic meet, producing conflicts and interference with the population. This paper contributes to the previous existing research on the Spanish crosstown roads, providing a new vision that had not been analyzed so far: the driver’s perspective. The main purpose of the investigation is to identify the contributing factors that increment the likelihood of a fatal outcome based on single-vehicle crashes, which occurred on Spanish crosstown roads in the period 2006-2016. In order to achieve this aim, 1064 accidents have been analyzed, applying a latent cluster analysis as an initial tool for the fragmentation of crashes. Next, a multinomial logit (MNL) model was applied to find the most important factors involved in driver injury severity. The statistical analysis reveals that factors such as lateral crosstown roads, low traffic volumes, higher percentages of heavy vehicles, wider lanes, the non-existence of road markings, and finally, infractions, increase the severity of the drivers’ injuries.

According to the Spanish General Traffic Accident Directorate, in 2017 a total of 351 pedestrians were killed, and 14,322 pedestrians were injured in motor vehicle crashes in Spain. However, very few studies have been conducted in order to analyse the main factors that contribute to pedestrian injury severity. This study analyses the accidents that involve a single vehicle and a single pedestrian on Spanish crosstown roads from 2006 to 2016 (1535 crashes). The factors that explain these accidents include infractions committed by the pedestrian and the driver, crash profiles, and infrastructure characteristics. As a preliminary tool for the segmentation of 1535 pedestrian crashes, a k-means cluster analysis was applied. In addition, multinomial logit (MNL) models were used for analysing crash data, where possible outcomes were fatalities and severe and minor injured pedestrians. According to the results of these models, the risk factors associated with pedestrian injury severity are as follows: visibility restricted by weather conditions or glare, infractions committed by the pedestrian (such as not using crossings, crossing unlawfully, or walking on the road), infractions committed by the driver (such as distracted driving and not respecting a light or a crossing), and finally, speed infractions committed by drivers (such as inadequate speed). This study proposes the specific safety countermeasures that in turn will improve overall road safety in this particular type of road.

The recent spike in the accident rate of urban Spanish roads, after years of negative growth, has been accompanied by a serious increase in accidents in a specific type of road: crosstown roads (called “travesías” in Spanish). Thus, in 2013, there was a 47% increase in accidents with casualties in these routes over 2012 data; in 2014, an 88% increase over the previous year and, although 2015 data reflect a slight decline (-3%), figures are still worrying. Moreover, these routes have always shown a higher fatality rate than the rest of urban roads.

El aprendizaje servicio es una metodología educativa en la que el estudiante adquiere una responsabilidad cívica al mismo tiempo que progresa en el aprendizaje de una determinada materia. Este artículo está centrado en la implementación de una experiencia de aprendizaje-servicio en el campo de la seguridad vial con alumnos de Ingeniería Civil. Trabajar con Asociaciones de Víctimas de accidentes de tráfico puede ayudar a comprender mejor los indicadores de siniestralidad, los tipos de lesiones causadas por estos accidentes y sus consecuencias físicas y legales. Este documento contribuye a la literatura existente con la evaluación de las experiencias positivas y negativas percibidas por los estudiantes al acometer por primera vez un proyecto de aprendizaje-servicio en el campo de la seguridad vial. La metodología se basó en una campaña de encuestas a los 61 estudiantes matriculados en la asignatura de "Gestión de la Circulación Viaria", dentro del Máster de Ingeniería de Caminos, Canales y Puertos de la Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM). Los estudiantes se organizaron en grupos de 6 y 7 miembros y se asignó a cada grupo una Asociación para desarrollar un caso práctico durante cuatro semanas. Los resultados mostraron un alto nivel de satisfacción de los estudiantes con esta nueva experiencia. Guirao, Begoña; Casado-Sanz, Natalia; Quesada, Antonio