CAR ACCIDENTS IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND LIGHT AS A CONTRIBUTORY FACTOR

Ensuring road safety and preventing car accidents are vital concerns for public health and safety. Despite advancements in vehicle technology and traffic management, the number of road accidents remains alarmingly high, leading to significant loss of life and injuries. The study aims to assess the relationship between causes and types of car accidents depending on lighting conditions when an accident happens. The quantitative content analysis of the car accidents recorded by the POLICE between October 2022 and October 2023 provided relevant data, processed by cluster analysis and illustrated via a heat map. Road safety and preventing car accidents have always been a public priority. The authors analysed crucial aspects of traffic safety and alarming numbers of casualties, including 440 deaths, 1,466 badly and 18,389 slightly injured people. The most common types of accidents involved head-on collisions with solid obstacles and ongoing non-rail vehicles. Careless drivers were the main provokers of the tragic events over the monitored period. Looking at the time of accidents, we can see interesting parallels in their causes, irrespective of the day or nighttime. Our recommendations included raising drivers' awareness and police imposing preventative measures against the common causes of accidents. The study did not consider other factors behind traffic collisions.