Integrating Road Safety and Environmental Impact via Telematics: Modeling Traffic Accident Risk Using Vehicle Emissions

Juan Sebastian Yanez, Montserrat Guillen (), Paulina Roszkowsk () and Jens Perch Nielsen ()
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Juan Sebastian Yanez: Department of Econometrics, Riskcenter-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Montserrat Guillen: Department of Econometrics, Riskcenter-IREA, Universitat de Barcelona, Spain.
Paulina Roszkowsk: Bayes Business School, City University of London, United Kingdom.
Jens Perch Nielsen: Bayes Business School, City University of London, United Kingdom.

No 202522, IREA Working Papers from University of Barcelona, Research Institute of Applied Economics

Abstract: Private vehicles harm public health by contributing to air pollution and traffic accidents, the leading cause of death among young adults. Despite these risks, drivers often ignore speed limits, while society increasingly prioritizes environmental protection. This tension between personal habits and collective responsibility highlights the urgent need for strategies to promote safer driving practices. Therefore, this paper introduces a novel approach to evaluating road crash risk using air pollutants as exposure measures, so drivers are simultaneously encouraged to reduce their environmental footprint and mitigate their road crash risk. We use a rich dataset of over 1,500 at-fault crash-related claims recorded over two years provided by an insurance company, merged with detailed telematics driving data for individual vehicles. We show that available emission factor models enable the integration of emission-based exposure measures to model road crash risk. Then, we provide empirical evidence that incorporating behavioral telematics data makes pollutant-driven models as efficient as traditional distance-driven ones. Our proposition has the potential to enhance road safety and reduce air pollution by directly linking environmentally conscious driving practices with reducing road crash risks.

Keywords: Air Pollution; Crash Risk; Public Health; Road Accident; Telematics; Transportation. JEL classification: G22; G52. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 34 pages
Date: 2025-12
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene and nep-tre
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ira:wpaper:202522

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