Mobility in mining: Issues for road safety improvement

The increase of mining activities in the northern regions of Chile has brought about a new environment in terms of mobility to those areas where this industry has moved forward. This change has not only affected road traffic accidents on public roads of the surrounding mines, but also the inner organization of the mining companies, which must fulfill strict regulations, achieving the highest levels of safety. Given this situation, the current road traffic accidentology with respect to the northern regions of Chile has been analyzed in this paper. The results of the analysis have shown the relevant weight of the human factor and the state of the infrastructure related to the number of road fatalities. Thus, this paper provides solutions to combine the existing driver-centered technologies together with GPS systems that can track the movement of several vehicles and the design of safety berms in mine haul roads to mitigate the number of fatalities associated with mining activity.