Remoteness and other risk factors in circumpolar road accident severity

Abstract

Access to healthcare services is more challenging in remote northern regions due to higher travel costs associated with longer distances and harsh environments. Emergency response to road accidents in remote regions can take significantly longer than in more easily accessible locations, and potentially lead to more severe health outcomes. Accordingly, it is important to have insights on the factors that influence road accident severity in remote regions. This paper uses police accident data from Canada’s Northwest Territories between 1989 and 2019 to assess the influence of various factors on accident severity, including environmental, infrastructure-specific, geographical and accident-specific characteristics. Using multinomial logistic regression, we find that remoteness, off-road vehicle involvement and alcohol involvement increase the odds of a road accident being in a higher severity category. Overall, we find that risk factors that are more prevalent in Canada’s northern, remote regions may increase the severity of accidents in comparison to less remote regions.

Keywords

• Accident severity
• Road safety
• Remoteness
• Circumpolar North
• Off-road vehicle