Commuting Accidents of Spanish Professional Drivers: When Occupational Risk Exceeds the Workplace

AbstractWork traffic accidents are an issue both in Spain and all over the world, and specific evidence on commuting accidents is scarce. Even though both industrial safety and welfare have been improved during the last decades, the commuting accidents rate is growing worldwide.Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine and describe the characteristics of commuting traffic crashes of Spanish professional drivers.Materials and methods: For this cross-sectional study, commuting accidents suffered by drivers during the last 12 years were analyzed. Crossed and heatmap-based analyses were performed in order to establish patterns and driver-based differences among commuting crashes.Results: Commuting crashes’ features were found to be associated with demographic and job-related variables of professional drivers. Drivers’ gender, time slots (peak/off-peak hours), together with the specific hour of the event, explained different trends in the accidentś severity and characteristics.Conclusions: The results of t...