TRAFFIC SAFETY ON LATVIA'S MAIN RATE STATE ROADS

The number of traffic accidents increased in Latvia at the beginning of the nineties. This was due to qualitative and quantitative changes in traffic flow. With the introduction of compulsory third party insurance, the number of registered road traffic accidents started to increase more intensively and the former relationship between AADT and the number of accidents, which was all right for former soviet circumstances, is not adequate for the existing situation. At that time, and also now, the biggest volume of traffic - approximately 80% to 90% - occurs within a 1614-km long main rate road network, with AADT approximately 2600 vehicles. One of the main reasons for this study was to get information about the changed situation on this type of road. The objectives of the paper are to: 1. analyze accident changes on main rate roads starting with the year 1995, 2. get the average density of accidents and economical losses per kilometer, and 3. get the relationship between average daily traffic and economical losses caused by road traffic accidents.