Extreme heat affects concentration – and apparently this is also the case when driving. As a new study by Statistics Austria shows, on days above 30 degrees the risk of a traffic accident with personal injury is significantly higher than on days with temperatures below 30 degrees. The risk is particularly high for drivers of single-track motor vehicles, such as motorcycles and mopeds.
The study compared accident statistics from the previous year with data from Geosphere Austria. According to Statistics Austria, 139 people died in road traffic in the period from June to August in 2023, the second highest number of road deaths since the summer of 2016, with the months of June and August 2023 standing out in particular, with 47 fatal accidents each.
“The summer months were also particularly dangerous in road traffic in 2023. The number of traffic accidents increased significantly, especially on hot days,” said Tobias Thomas, Managing Director of Statistics Austria.
Above 30 degrees, an average of 20 more accidents per day
Between June and August 2023, 12,097 traffic accidents with personal injury occurred in Austria. That is an average of 131 accidents per day. However, there were clear differences between hot days and non-hot days. On average, 145 accidents occurred on a day with a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius or higher, and 125 on a less warm day.
Most warm days in Vienna and Innsbruck
This extended across all nine federal states: the hottest days were measured in Vienna (2023: 37 hot days) and Innsbruck (35), the fewest in Bregenz and Graz with 20 each. Values in Tyrol were particularly striking. On non-hot days, there were an average of 15 accidents per day, while on hot days there were 20 accidents (plus 33 percent). The largest percentage difference was recorded in Burgenland with an increase of 35 percent, with a significantly lower absolute number of an average of four accidents on hot days.
As in previous years, June in 2023 was the month with the most traffic accidents resulting in bodily injury. In 2023, one in eight accidents occurred in June, more than two and a half times as many as in February, the month with the fewest accidents.
As in previous years, accidents involving single-track motorcycles, i.e. motorcycles and mopeds, had a major impact on the number of accidents in the summer of 2023. In the summer months, 40 percent of all fatal accidents involved a motorcycle or moped (55). In comparison, in the remaining months (January to May and September to December), 14 percent of all accident victims who died involving single-track motorcycles died.
Source: Krone
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