Road Accidents - Study of the Evolution and Mapping of Accidents Within the Municipality of Cagliari – Italy

In recent decades, great attention has been paid to the issue of road safety, both at the international level and on a national scale, in which individual nations have gradually put into practice both direct and indirect interventions, the effects of which have been measured by the reduction in the number of accidents over time. However, critical issues remain, and the zero road fatalities goal advocated by the PNSS [1, 2] in its 2010 and 2020 editions has not yet been achieved; in fact, we are still quite far from the goal. In this study, the authors analyzed accident data provided by the Cagliari Municipality for the years 2014 to 2022. The data divided by nature of accident, type of vehicles involved, accident circumstances, and severity were analyzed in order to provide an overview of their evolution. In addition, location data were mapped with GIS – Geographic Information System - and represented in thematic maps. These provide a powerful tool for analysts and local administrators to (i) visualize critical and conflict areas immediately and clearly and (ii) identify risk factors on which to potentially intervene in order to remove criticality. The application to a local context through the operational use of maps, in the authors’ opinion, represents the added value of the study.