Elsevier

Injury

Volume 32, Issue 2, March 2001, Pages 91-94
Injury

Increases in fines and driver licence withdrawal have effectively reduced immediate deaths from trauma on Brazilian roads: first-year report on the new traffic code

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0020-1383(00)00172-8Get rights and content

Abstract

Road accidents are a major cause of death in Brazil, with rates increasing steadily for years. Our objective here is to report the impact of the new Brazilian Traffic Code, introduced in 1998. Its main new features include a large increase in fines and a rigid penalty scoring system that leads to driver license withdrawal. Speed limits have actually been raised on many roads, but adherence to the rules has been monitored more closely. We compare the incidence of injured patients and immediate deaths in road accidents and emergency room admissions to a level I trauma centre in downtown São Paulo between January and December 1998 with corresponding data from between January and December 1997. There was an overall 21.3% reduction in the number of accidents and a 24.7% reduction in immediate deaths, saving 5962 lives on Brazilian highways. Tickets issued fell by 49.5% (601 977 during 1997 to 304 785 during 1998). Motor vehicle accident-related emergency room admissions decreased by 33.2%. We conclude that very costly tickets and threatened driver licences have proved very effective in decreasing immediate deaths from trauma. Further advances in educational programmes associated with road and vehicle safety measures are likely to provide the much needed further reduction in the still high trauma mortality on Brazilian roads and streets.

Introduction

Motor vehicle crashes and accidents involving pedestrians and vehicles account for much disability and loss of life in Brazil. Second to gunshot wounds, they are the most common causes of death among our population between 15 and 39 years of age and are the third cause of death between the ages of 10 and 49 years [1], [2]. Several reports from developed countries show that the rates of fatal and non-fatal injuries from motor vehicle crashes have declined over the years, largely associated with compliance to mandatory seat-belt and helmet use [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. Compliance to the same laws is a fact in Brazil; but motor vehicle crashes continue to kill, with death rates increasing steadily for years. It has been estimated that 90% of these crashes are caused by human error, while 6% are caused by road defects and 4% by mechanical failures [2].

On 21 January 1998, a new National Traffic Code began to be enforced in Brazil, in an attempt to reduce the number of deaths on the roads. This new code replaces a 33-year-old code and seeks to produce short-term changes in driver behaviour through stricter enforcement and higher penalties. The main changes were a large increase in fines, in some cases ten-fold, and a rigid penalty scoring system that leads to driver licence withdrawal. Speed limits were actually raised on many highways, but adherence to the rules has been more closely and effectively monitored.

Our purpose now is to analyse the impact in its first year of this new traffic code, which has punishment as its most striking feature, on the number of accidents, injured patients and immediate deaths on Brazilian interstate highways. Additionally, emergency room admissions to a level I trauma centre in downtown São Paulo were evaluated to show the impact of the new code on the incidence of injury from accidents occurring within an urban area.

Section snippets

Methods

The incidence of accidents, injured patients and immediate deaths on Brazilian interstate highways between 21 January 1998 and 20 January 1999 was compared with the corresponding data obtained between 21 January 1997 and 20 January 1998. Data were collected and published by the Departamento Nacional de Trânsito, the National Traffic Agency of the Brazilian Government, and made widely available through the lay press. Only eight out of 26 Brazilian states (Tocantins, Acre, Amazonas, Amapá, Goias,

Results

The new Brazilian Traffic Code was associated with a 21.3% reduction in the number of accidents occurring on interstate highways, from 327 640 in 1997 to 257 866 in 1998. More importantly, there was a 24.7% reduction in immediate deaths, saving 5962 lives (Fig. 1). There was also a marked decrease in tickets issued on the highway, which fell from 601 977 to 304 785, a 49.5% reduction.

A similar pattern was observed in downtown São Paulo, where there was a 33.2% reduction in motor vehicle-related

Discussion

Expensive tickets and threatened driver licences have proved to be an effective means of decreasing the first-peak, trauma-related, immediate deaths on Brazilian roads and the emergency room admissions from motor vehicle accidents in an urban area. Although the impact of the new code on the second- and the third-peak mortality could not be estimated, it is likely that morbidity and hospital mortality were reduced.

The social and economic impact of these findings is dramatic. Trauma is an

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by Fundação de Amparo a Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, grant FAPESP – 98/15658-0.

References (7)

  • Anuário Estatı́stico de Mortalidade. Fundação Nacional de Saúde, Ministério de Saúde, Brasil,...
  • Fundação Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatı́stica — IBGE, Fundação Sistema Estadual de Análise de Dados...
  • W. Max et al.

    Putting a lid on injury costs: the economic impact of the California motorcycle helmet law

    J. Trauma

    (1998)
There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (39)

  • Estimating the impact of the Penalty Point System on road fatalities in Spain

    2020, Transport Policy
    Citation Excerpt :

    Similar results have been obtained in other latitudes like, for example, Brazil. Poli de Figueiredo et al. (2001) found that the new Brazilian Traffic Code, that included a rigid PPS, provoked a reduction of 21% and 25% in the number of accidents and deaths, respectively. For Spain, Aparicio-Izquierdo et al. (2011) found that the number of fatalities on the road within 24 h after the accident, the number of excess speed sanctions from radar controls and the number of sanctions for non-use of protective systems (seat belt and helmet) lowered from before to after (until 2009) the PPS came into force.

  • Association between increase in fixed penalties and road safety outcomes: A meta-analysis

    2016, Accident Analysis and Prevention
    Citation Excerpt :

    Two studies reporting such changes were omitted from the meta-analysis. One of these studies (Poli de Figueiredo et al., 2001) relied on data for only one year before and one year after the change. A subsequent study (Maffei de Andrade et al., 2008) found these years to be atypical of long-term trends.

  • The costs of avoiding accidents: Selective compliance and the 'Peltzman effect' in Italy

    2012, International Review of Law and Economics
    Citation Excerpt :

    At the same time, some drivers systematically infringe traffic law rules even under a PPS. Several country-based studies provide evidence of positive impacts of a PPS in terms of its ability to increase deterrence (Haque, 1990; Zaal, 1994; Vaa, 2000; Zambon et al., 2008) and improve road safety (Hussain, Nayyar, Brady, Beirne, & Stassen, 2006; Papaioannou, Mintsis, Taxiltaris, & Basbas, 2002; Poli de Figueiredo, Rasslan, Bruscagin, Cruz, & Rocha e Silva, 2001; Zambon et al., 2007). Other empirical analyses show the potential of a PRDL to discriminate between different categories of drivers according to their offense propensity.

  • Driving licenses based on points systems: Efficient road safety strategy or latest fashion in global transport policy? A worldwide meta-analysis

    2012, Transport Policy
    Citation Excerpt :

    In this way almost fifty studies with these characteristics were located although they are all greatly heterogeneous, especially with regard to their methodologies. Some are eminently theoretical (such as Basili and Nicita, 2005 and Bourgeon and Picard, 2007), whilst others are based on a comparison of before-and-after statistics (Poli de Figuereido et al., 2001). Only a sample of suitable studies was selected, using typical inclusion criteria in meta-analysis (see Elvik, 1999), i.e., those which: 1.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text