Causes and variability of traffic accidents in urban roads

The high number of traffic accidents that every year take place in highways, forces to analyze the factors that cause them. Several factors exist that can be the reason for an accident: the human factor, conformed by drivers, pedestrians or passengers; as well as, the vehicles, and the infrastructures. These factors can appear individually or interacting; but the relevance each one of them has is different, being the human factor the cause of the greater percentage of accidents, mainly due to the distraction of drivers, as it is published in the statistics by the authorities of traffic. In this work, the traffic accidents occurred in the city of Santander in 2010 are studied, according to the factors that cause them, and their variation in summer and winter. Finally, a series of actions is recommended on road infrastructures, drivers and the urban circulation, to improve road security.