High risk for bikers

Heat: risk of accidents with personal injury increases

(Bild: P. Huber)

Enormous heat affects concentration - this is apparently also the case when driving. As a new study by Statistics Austria shows, the risk of a road accident resulting in personal injury is significantly higher on days above 30 degrees than on days with temperatures below 30 degrees. The risk is particularly high for drivers of single-track vehicles such as motorcycles and mopeds.

In the study, the accident statistics from the previous year were compared with data from Geosphere Austria. According to Statistics Austria, the 139 road fatalities in the period from June to August 2023 were the second-highest number since summer 2016, with the months of June and August 2023 being particularly notable with 47 fatalities each.

"The summer months were also particularly dangerous for road traffic in 2023. The number of road accidents was significantly higher on hot days in particular," said Statistics Austria Director General Tobias Thomas.

An average of 20 more accidents per day above 30 degrees
Between June and August 2023, 12,097 road accidents with personal injury occurred in Austria. That's an average of 131 accidents per day. However, there were clear differences between heat days and non-heat days. On average, 145 accidents occurred on a day with a temperature of 30 degrees Celsius or above, and 125 on a less hot day.

(Bild: BM.I Referat II)

Most heat days in Vienna and Innsbruck
This was the case across all nine federal states: The most heat days were recorded in Vienna (2023: 37 heat days) and Innsbruck (35), the fewest in Bregenz and Graz with 20 each. The figures for Tyrol were particularly striking, where an average of 15 accidents per day occurred on non-heat days, compared to 20 on heat days (up 33 percent). In Burgenland, with a significantly lower absolute number of four accidents on average on heat days, the largest percentage difference was recorded with an increase of 35%.

As in previous years, June was the month with the most road accidents involving personal injury in 2023. One in eight accidents occurred in June in 2023, 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 significant impact on the accident figures in summer 2023. In the summer months, 40 percent of all fatal accidents involved motorcycles or mopeds (55). By comparison, in the remaining months (January to May and September to December), 14 percent of all fatal accident victims were killed on single-track motorcycles.