The Main Causes of Traffic Accidents in Chile: How to Prevent Them with MIGTRA?

Year after year, traffic accidents continue to be one of the leading causes of death in Chile. Every day, five people lose their lives in traffic accidents on the country's roads and streets, representing an alarming figure that as a society we must urgently reduce.

In the most recent report, the National Traffic Safety Commission CONASET noted that during 2022, 86,050 traffic accidents, 52,590 injuries and 1,745 deaths were recorded, figures that have increased compared to the previous year.

One of the main risk factors for traffic accidents is speeding, along with driver recklessness and failure to respect traffic signals. During the last decade, "reckless speed and loss of vehicle control" has been the leading cause of fatalities in traffic accidents in the country, which is why CONASET has defined a "vision zero" policy in road safety, with the goal of reducing deaths and serious injuries from road accidents by 50% by 2030.

But a traffic accident can also occur for various other reasons, including: Speeding, lack of safety distance, invasion of the opposite lane, illegal turns, distractions, failure to yield, reverse maneuvers, objects on the road, road defects and drowsiness. These causes are known as driving risk factors.

These worrying data demonstrate the need to adopt effective preventive measures to reduce the number of traffic accidents, not only on highways where private vehicles travel, but also in cargo transport fleets that can be affected by speeding and other factors.

Regarding heavy cargo vehicles, of all traffic accidents in the country in 2021, 6,745 involved trucks, leaving 100 truck occupants dead and 1,412 injured. Young adults aged 30 to 44 were the main participants in traffic accidents involving trucks. Likewise, traffic accidents involving trucks showed a 21.7% increase compared to the previous year and the region with the highest number of fatalities in truck traffic accidents was Antofagasta, despite a lower occurrence of accidents. In this region, the role of mining is very important and trucks are a fundamental tool for transporting large quantities of material and equipment. These vehicles can weigh several tons, making them a major threat on the road. Additionally, mines are usually located in remote areas with narrow and winding roads, which increases the risk of traffic accidents, along with driver fatigue and speeding are also contributing factors to the high accident rate.

For these reasons, we have developed MIGTRA RA, which plays an important role in risk prevention, as it allows managing all traffic accident risks on a single platform: such as speeding, the fatigue from driving several hours during the work day, head nods or microsleeps and distractions (talking on the phone or smoking), among others.

But that is not all. MIGTRA is part of the National Road Safety Pact with CONASET. This initiative seeks to coordinate public-private actions to reduce traffic accidents and you can read about it in this article.

If you want to learn more about how we can help you manage the risk of traffic accidents in your fleet, contact us today at info@migtra.com and together we will work for safer and more efficient mobility.