Acidentes de trânsito e consumo de álcool ao dirigir nas rodovias federais do Estado do Rio Grande do Norte: 2007 a 2019

Abstract

Considering the dangerous classification of alcohol and the central objective of the study, trends in the occurrence of traffic accidents with occasional fatal and non-fatal victims due to alcohol use while driving on designated roads in the State of Rio Grande do Norte (RN) were identified. 2007 to 2019. This study is justified due to the importance of demographic studies on the subject, and comprises a period of important changes in Brazilian traffic legislation, such as supporting traffic laws to curb alcohol consumption in important driving traffic, such as the implementation of the Drinking and Driving Law. The RN is an investigative cut that provokes demographic studies because it is located in one of the three Brazilian regions that have the highest traffic mortality rates. In this study, the following hypothesis was tested: the formation of clusters in the period from 2007 to 2019 occurred due to the centralization of the occurrence of traffic accidents with fatal and non-fatal victims motivated by the consumption of alcoholic beverages in the Metropolitan Region of Natal. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, information from the Federal Highway Police (PRF) was used. This source provides information on accidents at two levels: occurrence and person involved in the accident, and both were used in this study. A database of 2,143 occurrences of traffic accidents motivated by alcohol consumption recorded on federal highways in RN was used, and from the database of people, 4,735 records of those involved in accidents that also had the main cause of alcohol use were analyzed of alcohol when driving on federal highways in RN. Descriptive analysis and univariate spatial analysis were used as methods through the application of the Global Moran Index and the Local Moran Index (LISA). In this analysis, the software used were Qgis (version 3.16.3) and Geoda (version 1.18). Among the main results, the following profile of fatal victims in accidents whose main cause was alcohol consumption was found: predominantly male (N=309; 78.4%), aged between 18 and 29 years (N=110; 31.2%), of the conductor type (N=236; 56.3%) and in stretches of federal highways located in the interior of RN (N=95; 67.4%). Regarding the spatial analysis, in spite of the low value found for the Global Moran Index for accidents with fatalities or not, clusters formation was verified through the Local Moran Index, and beyond the Metropolitan Region of Natal, rejecting the hypothesis tested. In general, the results found indicate that the prevention and reduction of traffic accidents analyzed depend on public policies that are active throughout the territory, and not only in the capital and its surroundings, and that take into account not only the demographic profile as well as the road/environmental characteristics of the occurrences.