Fatalities associated with the severe weather conditions in the Czech Republic, 2000–2019

Abstract

Abstract. This paper presents an analysis of fatalities attributable to weather conditions in the Czech Republic during the 2000–2019 period. The database of fatalities deployed contains information extracted from Právo, a leading daily newspaper, and Novinky.cz, its internet equivalent, supplemented by a number of other documentary sources. The analysis is performed for floods, windstorms, convective storms, rain, snow, glaze ice, frost, heat, and fog. For each of them, the associated fatalities are investigated in terms of annual frequencies, trends, annual variation, spatial distribution, cause, type, place, and time as well as the sex, age, and behaviour of casualties. There were 1164 weather-related fatalities during the 2000–2019 study period, exhibiting a statistically significant falling trend. Those attributable to frost (31 %) predominated, followed by glaze ice, rain, and snow. Fatalities were at their maximum in January and December and at their minimum in April and September. Fatalities arising out of vehicle accidents (48 %) predominated in terms of structure, followed by freezing or hypothermia (30 %). Most deaths occurred during the night. Adults (65 %) and males (72 %) accounted for the majority of fatalities, while indirect fatalities were more frequent than direct ones (55 % to 45 %). Hazardous behaviour accounted for 76 %. According to the database of the Czech Statistical Office, deaths caused by exposure to excessive natural cold are markedly predominant among five selected groups of weather-related fatalities, and their numbers exhibit a statistically significant rise during 2000–2019. Police yearbooks of the fatalities arising out of vehicle accidents indicate significantly decreasing trends in the frequency of inclement weather patterns associated with fatal accidents as well as a decrease in their percentage in annual numbers of fatalities. The discussion of results includes the problems of data uncertainty, comparison of different data sources, and the broader context.

Severity of winters in the Czech Republic during the 1961–2021 period and related environmental impacts and responses

“…A similar gap in weather impact reports also appeared around and after the political change in the country, when media concentrated rather on the formation of a new democratic society. But as mentioned in detail by Br azdil et al (2021a), also after 1990 we may see changes in weather impacts information depending on the media market, strategy and internal changes in the actual newspaper.…”

Developing a large-scale dataset of flood fatalities for territories in the Euro-Mediterranean region, FFEM-DB

“…For CZE, both databases include three FEs that took place during the period under review, with FFEM-DB having 5% more FFs 59 , 60 .…”

Causal Analysis and Prevention Measures for Extreme Heavy Rainstorms in Zhengzhou to Protect Human Health

“…Rainstorms are severe weather phenomena, and a series of accidents can occur because of a rainstorm. Brazdil et al [ 14 ] reported that rain led to 205 fatalities in the Czech Republic from 2000 to 2019, and the results showed that nearly half of the fatalities (49.8%) occurred in the summer months. Tobin et al [ 15 ] estimated the relative risk of crashes during rain using a matched-pair analysis in Kansas for 1995–2014.…”

“…Rainstorms can lead to a series of secondary disasters, such as flash floods, landslides, mudslides, house collapses, and traffic and communication interruptions, which can bring serious harm to the national economy and people’s lives and property. Previous studies have mainly focused on the accidents caused by rainstorms [ 14 , 15 , 16 ], but they have failed to conduct a deep analysis of the causes, consequences, and prevention measures of these accidents. Preliminary hazard analysis (PHA) [ 17 , 18 ], fault tree analysis (FTA) [ 19 , 20 ], and bow-tie models [ 21 , 22 ] are widely used to identify the causes, consequences, and prevention measures for fatal accidents, and the results have shown that these methods can obtain accurate accident data and reduce the risk of accidents.…”