International Scientific Journals
of Scientific Technical Union of Mechanical Engineering "Industry 4.0"

The road traffic safety factor is divided into three basic groups: human, vehicle, road (infrastructure). Technically defective, poorly maintained and technologically obsolete vehicles endanger road safety. The number of technically defective vehicles that are involved in traffic accidents, when checks are carried out by officers of traffic police, is 0.2%. Considering that 21.31% of vehicles are found to be defective by periodical technical inspections of vehicles (PTI), it is expected that the number of technically defective vehicles in daily traffic is considerably higher. By analyzing the data collected by PTI and comparing them with the data obtained during the conducted research “Inspection of the technical safety of vehicles involved in road traffic accidents with fatalities” the real state of the technical condition and safety of vehicles on the roads in the Republic of Croatia is presented here. Two-wheel vehicles (mopeds and motorcycles) represent a particularly risky group.

The factors that affect on traffic safety are human, vehicle, road and environment. In Croatia the leading cause of traffic accident is human, in just 0,2% of traffic accident the cause is some technical defect on vehicle. However, analyzing the information that on the regular annual technical inspection more than 22% of the vehicle did not meet the technical requirements, to assume is that the number of defective vehicles that causes traffic accidents is significantly higher. In order to determine the relevant statistic data of vehicle as a cause of traffic accidents, it is necessary to implement technical inspection of vehicle that are involved in traffic accident. Research objectives are to determine how many defective vehicles were involved in traffic accident, how many of them might have been the cause of a traffic accident, and which elements on the vehicle are possible cause of traffic accident.