If you can't take the heat: Influences of temperature on bus accident rates

The influences of heat and rain upon accident risk of city buses in a Swedish town were studied for a 10-year time period, but no reliable effects found, despite the fact that the temperature might be as high as 30 degrees C outside the vehicles. As the use of single accidents with buses bypasses many of the methodological problems inherent in the study of weather effects on accident rates, for example changes in general traffic density, the present study was a rather strict test of the hypothesis of increased accident risk due to these factors. It was therefore concluded that rain and high temperatures do not increase the risk of accident for low-speed buses in Sweden. However, there could still be an effect of hot weather on bus accidents at higher temperatures than those normally found in Sweden. (c) 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.