Abstract

Evaluation of the public health impact of road safety regulations, referred to as accountability research, is increasingly viewed as a necessary component of responsible governmental policy interventions. The authors present an example of accountability assessment based on evaluating change in the middle-term effect of fatal traffic accidents over a period of increasingly stringent regulation that might have changed the frequency and severity of this phenomenon. They used updated data of the National Institute of Geography and Informatics to estimate national frequency distribution and brute and average rates of the mortality by traffic accidents for 2000–2007.

The authors found strong evidence that mortality continue increasingly, particularly in a group of young women. They also found that on mortality declined after 2006 and this decline occurred mostly in eight states of Mexico. The methodology presented can be used to track the impact of an intervention routinely on regional and national scales.