assessment of the role of climatic elements on road accidents (a case study of saqqez–sanandaj road)

this article studies the effects of weather on road accidents in saqqez - sanandaj road. saqqez- sanandaj road’s length is 187 km and it is one of the main hazardous roads of the area. in this study, the distribution map of road accidents and the probability of accidents were prepared under every climatic condition (i.e., snowy, frozen, rainy, foggy, and sunny). a database of road accidents occurred during 2006-2008 was added to the road layer. frequency classification of accidents occurred in different parts of the area in different weather conditions was then accomplished to identify risky areas. results indicated that accidents could be identified as snowy weather conditions in 53 to 87 km, 93 to 152 km as freezing condition’s in rainy weather the path of 48 to 71 km, in foggy weather that of 73 to 85 km, in 51 to 79 km and all weather conditions, and 75 to 168 km paths were the area of maximum accident frequency and dangerous parts. finally, using risk accident map and also the importance index of each factor on the basis of frequency of accidents, the zoning map of low risk, medium risk, high risk and very high risk areas was drawn. findings show that parallel to the increase of number of snowy and rainy days, the frequency, severity of damage, the death toll and injured number of road accidents were determined.