Limiting Speed Improves Highway Safety: Evidence from Brazil

Abstract

Objective: Traffic accidents represent one of the largest causes of death in the world, with increase evidence that low and middle income countries are being disproportionately affected. Brazil has adopted policies aimed at reducing accidents and decrease its severity. In 2010, Programa Nacional de Controle de Velocidade, or National Plan for Speed Control, was implemented with the objective of installing thousands of electronic speed cameras on Brazilian federal highways. Amidst several criticisms about the program’s effectiveness, it was briefly interrupted in 2019. Methodology: Using data about traffic accidents for the period 2011-2018, we build a panel for thousands of roads that were treated by a speed camera. We took advantage of the staggered way as electronic cameras were being installed on federal roads to identify their effect on the total number of road accidents using a event study empirical strategy. Results: Our results seem to suggest that the installation of a camera on a site can reduce accidents and its severity. When analysing heterogeneity in the relationship between site characterists and accidents rate, we conclude that speed cameras are more effective on rural sites and during daylight.