Comparisons and deductions concerning the factors in night accidents is made difficult by the different definitions in different countries. For example, in Belgium, a person is regarded as killed in an accident if death occurred at the scene of the accident. In Portugal, death may occur either at the scene or during transport to hospital. The period varies in other countries, being seven days in Italy, 30 days in most other European countries, and in the United States it is one year. This makes comparison of fatal or injury accidents directly somewhat misleading. The best approach is to compare parameters such as ratios of day to night accidents; or of severity, which is the proportion of fatal to injury accidents. These parameters are comparable from one country to another. Hundred of accident studies have been published in the last fifty years as the road accident problem began to be studied. Night accidents have not been singled out to any great extent on their own and the presented survey is mostly taken from general work on the problem. (A)
Abstract