data_dream_team: An HTML repository from COGS137

San Diego County 2021 Automobile Accidents

Questions:

Based on the 2021 accident records in San Diego County, which day and month have the most accidents?
How does season and weather conditions impact the frequency of accidents on a given day in 2021, and what is the relationship between them?

Motivation:

As UCSD students, we are frequently driving around San Diego, and have thus witnessed our fair share of accidents in the city. With recent weather patterns growing increasingly unpredictable, we are eager to investigate whether there exists a correlation between weather and the frequency of accidents. A staggering 31,785 individuals lost their lives in traffic crashes in 2022. Shockingly, roughly one in every ten of these fatalities occurred in California. Our study aims to explore this potential relationship between weather conditions, seasons, and the daily frequency of accidents in San Diego. By carefully analyzing traffic data, we hope to uncover whether weather and seasonal changes hold a significant impact on the frequency of accidents in our area. Ultimately, our goal is to provide insights that may aid in improving road safety and reducing the number of accidents in “America’s Finest City”. ¹

Key findings:

Through looking at the frequency of accidents at a monthly and seasonal basis, we cannot mathematically state that driving in fair weather in December will lead to an accident in any city in the US. However, while looking at visual plots and our linear regression model in San Diego for the year 2021, we can see that there is a significant increase in accidents during the winter seasons - particularly for the month of December. In terms of weather conditions, we’ve found that accidents generally happen in fair weather, but there is still a significant number of dates with a high count of total daily accidents that occur in stormy or foggy weather as well. In conclusion, there is an increasing trend of accidents as we taper towards the end of the year and approach the Fall and Winter seasons, and especially peak holiday season in December.

Links: