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Negligent driving

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Road safety

Negligent driving is a failure to exercise the care expected of a responsible driver. Consider driving behaviors associated with the lack of judgment when driving a motor vehicle in Puerto Rico.

35%

Drivers who exceeded speed limits account for 35% of all traffic fatalities.

SOURCE: 2012-2018 PUERTO RICO FATALITIES, PRTSC.

57%

The top 3 circumstances contributing to fatal crashes were: exceeding the speed limit (57%), going against traffic (15%) and driving too close to another vehicle (7%).

SOURCE: 2012-2018 PUERTO RICO FATALITIES, PRTSC.

49%

The top 3 circumstances contributing to injury crashes were: driving too close to another vehicle (49%), failure to yield (9%) and disobeying traffic signals (9%).

SOURCE: 2012-2018 PUERTO RICO FATALITIES, PRTSC.

78

Target

Reduce the 5-year average of speeding-related fatalities from 98 to 78 within the next 5 years.

Strategic goal

Reduce the number of fatalities related to speeding.

Performance goal

5-year average of fatalities related to speeding.

 

Strategies

The negligent behavior included in the fatality and crash database is speeding; therefore, it is primarily used for the analysis of negligent driving. Between 2014 and 2016, speeding accounted for 36.95% of driver fatalities.

Behavior for this emphasis area includes:

  • Failure to yield
  • Ignoring traffic control
  • Driving over the speed limit
  • Wrong turn
  • Failure to keep distance between vehicles
  • Changing lanes improperly
  • Driving in reverse improperly
  • Improperly passing
  • Failure to post traffic signs
  • Driving too slowly
  • Overload
  • Improper trailer hitching
  • Driving against traffic
  • Vehicle pushing or pulling another vehicle
  • Person pushing vehicle
  • Failure to obey traffic signals
  • Overextended load
  • Clandestine racing

1

Educate about the impact of negligent driving on traffic crashes.

2

Coordinate preventive patrols in places prone to negligent driving.

3

Include engineering measures to deter speeding and other forms of aggressive driving (e.g. traffic calming, work zones, school zones).

4

Promote the use of intelligent transportation system technologies for automated law enforcement.

5

Improve the processes of the driver's license point system and the tools to support it.

6

Include the issue of road safety in Metropolitan Planning Organization (MPO) meetings.