Fraccidents : The Impact of Fracking on Road Traffic Deaths

Hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a., fracking, requires intense truck trips to transport a large volume ofwater within a narrow time window, posing a safety threat to other road users. This paper examineshow fracking-related trucking affects fatal crashes in North Dakota using the exogenous timingof fracking operations near a road segment. The results show that an additional post-frackingwell within six miles of a road segment led to 8% more fatal crashes and 7.1% higher per-capitacosts in accidents. Transport activities at wells' other operational stages did not affect fatal crashes.These additional fatal crashes emerged mainly from collisions involving trucks, resulted from ahigher traffic volume rather than a higher crash rate and occurred during daytime rush hoursrather than during the rest of the day. Alcohol-involved drivers increased among these fatalcrashes most likely due to their vulnerability to heavier fracking-induced traffic rather than morealcohol-involved truck drivers near the fracking sites