A notable rise in aggressive driving habits during and after the Covid-19 pandemic, leading to a surge in the proportion of serious injuries and deaths, has prompted researchers to call for urgent policy interventions.
This is amongst the key findings of a new study titled ‘A Comprehensive Assessment of Before-During-After Impacts of Covid-19 Pandemic on Road Crashes’ by Nadin Hossam and Uneb Gazder from the University of Bahrain and Abdallah Al Faoury from the Bahrain Defence Force, which aims to highlight behavioural shifts among drivers between 2015 and 2023.
“The purpose of this study is to carry out a multivariate comparative analysis of road crashes before, during and after the Covid-19 pandemic,” researchers noted in the study.
“The aggregate crash data for Bahrain was collected and analysed to achieve the aim of the study.
“Total fatal and injury crashes in Bahrain showed a significant drop during the pandemic.
“After the pandemic, crashes increased again, slightly. This increase, fortunately, did not revert back to pre-pandemic.
“This study is the first of its kind which analyses road crashes trends across the pandemic period.
“It provides evidence for the increase in aggressive driver behaviour after the pandemic which could be a result of low traffic conditions experienced during pandemic.”
The comprehensive study analyses road crash trends across three phases: before (2015-19), during (2020-21), and after (2022) Covid-19.
From 2015 to 2022, Bahrain averaged 987 crashes per year, including 526 slight injuries, 435 serious injuries and 54 fatalities annually.
The lowest total was recorded in 2020, the first pandemic year, when 613 crashes occurred. However, the number of fatalities that year remained high at 53, making it the third deadliest year in the dataset.
Crash numbers began to climb after restrictions were lifted, reaching 822 in 2022.
An estimate from the General Traffic Directorate suggests that crashes fell again slightly in 2023, by seven per cent.
Although overall crashes in 2022 were still below pre-pandemic levels, serious injury crashes accounted for a higher share of the total. During the pandemic, serious injuries made up 53.5pc of total crashes in areas such as Manama, up from 39.1pc before Covid. In 2022, this proportion remained elevated at 51.7pc.
The Wilcoxon Signed Rank test showed a 13.9pc increase in the proportion of serious injury crashes from before to during the pandemic. It also found a 12.9pc increase from before to after the pandemic.
Slight injury crashes, by contrast, decreased by 16.6pc from before to during the pandemic and by 12.4pc between the before and after periods.
“The before and after comparisons show an increase in the proportion of serious injury crashes,” authors noted.
“This is in spite of not having any significant increase in frequency of these crashes in the before and after period.”
This pattern, they suggest, could be explained by riskier driving behaviour, such as speeding on emptier roads, which was observed globally during lockdown periods.
During the pandemic, Bahrain enforced nationwide lockdowns, travel restrictions, and curfews, similar to international responses. These measures sharply reduced road usage.
Crash trends closely mirrored these societal shifts. In 2020, the country recorded its lowest number of crashes in the study period, though it simultaneously saw one of the highest rates of fatalities.
According to researchers, while minor accidents decreased due to reduced traffic, serious crashes involving speeding and recklessness may have become more common.
The researchers emphasised that these trends align with international and regional findings.
The study urged authorities to consider policies in case of prolonged behavioural shifts among drivers which may affect future road safety.
“It is still to be seen if this behaviour would persist in a longer period of time,” researchers noted.
“If it does continue as per the current evidence, then a change in design practices and traffic management policies would be required to counteract its negative impacts.”
According to statistics available through Bahrain’s open data portal, traffic fatalities increased from 48 in 2018 to 70 in 2023.
Driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs caused the highest proportion of fatal accidents in 2023, followed by hitting pedestrians, losing control and crossing red lights.
Manama and Riffa had the highest number of fatalities, with 12 deadly crashes registered in each of the areas.
naman@gdnmedia.bh
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