An Investigation of Road Accidents in Australia in relation to Geomagnetic Activity

Abstract

Daily data on the number of road accidents recorded in Melbourne and Sydney (Australia) during 1973-74 and 1974-75, respectively, are statistically analyzed and studied month by month against the corresponding daily geomagnetic activity index ∑ <i>K_p</i>, according to East Australian time. Monthly mean values of the daily data on road accidents, geomagnetic activity index ∑ <i>K_p</i> and planetary magnetic average ranges <i>A_p</i>, and the sunspot numbers <i>R_Z</i> are also investigated for a possible correlation, assuming that the human error caused by geomagnetic disturbances might lead to increased number of road accidents everywhere in the world. The correlation coefficients, however, between the daily data computed separately for the 48 months, as well as between their monthly mean values for each of the four years, are not found to be statistically significant. It is, therefore, concluded that the influence of geomagnetic activity, if any, on the electromagnetics of the human brain and the nervous systems, is masked by various other dominant causes of road traffic accidents, and cannot be separated and demonstrated with the help of the daily data on road accidents.