Bulletin of Electrical Engineering and Informatics Vol. 13, No. 3, June 2024, pp. 2075~2085 ISSN: 2302-9285, DOI: 10.11591/eei.v13i3.6135  2075 Journal homepage: http://beei.org Accident black spots identification based on association rule mining Abdelilah Mbarek 1 , Mouna Jiber 2 , Ali Yahyaouy 1 , Abdelouahed Sabri 1 1 LISAC Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University, Fez, Morocco 2 Ministry of Equipment and Water, Fez, Morocco Article Info ABSTRACT Article history: Received Mar 3, 2023 Revised Aug 27, 2023 Accepted Dec 13, 2023 This paper presents an analytical approach to identifying the important characteristics of accident black spots on Moroccan rural roads. An association rule mining method is applied to extract road spatial characteristics associated with fatal accidents. The weighted severity index was calculated for each section, which was then used to determine the severity levels of black spots. The apriori algorithm is applied to find the correlation between road characteristics and the severity levels of black spots. Then, a general rule selection method is proposed to identify the rules strongly associated with each severity level. The results show that the proposed approach is effective in identifying the most important factors contributing to accidents. Furthermore, it shows that the combination of several road characteristics, such as road width, road surface, and bridge presence, may contribute to fatal accidents. The general rule selection found that wet, bad surfaces, and narrow shoulders were significantly associated with accidents on rural roads. The findings of the present study can help develop effective strategies to reduce road accidents and thus improve road safety in the country. Keywords: Black spot Data mining Road accident Road safety Weighted severity index This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA license. Corresponding Author: Abdelilah Mbarek LISAC Laboratory, Faculty of Sciences Dhar El Mahraz, Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdellah University Fez, Morocco Email: abdelilah.mbarek@hotmail.com 1. INTRODUCTION In response to the resurgence of road traffic accidents, Morocco has been a forerunner in developing a national road safety strategy with the primary goal of reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries in a sustainable and continuous manner. Until the creation of the national road safety agency NARSA in 2018, the country's road safety sector was managed by the Ministry of Equipment and Water (MEW). Given the importance of road infrastructure and its role in the road safety sector, the road infrastructure budget accounts for 15% of total public investment. In 2018, more than 24 billion dirhams were invested in transportation infrastructure, with roads and highways receiving 52% of the funds. According to the same year's data, the national road network consists of 1,800 kilometers of highways and 57,334 kilometers of roads, 44,180 kilometers of which are paved, counting 77% of the entire network. The pavement condition indicator (PCI) indicates that 62.7% of the road network is in acceptable or good condition. Despite significant investments in road safety by the country, the number of fatal accidents continues to rise, resulting in significant human and economic losses for victims, their families, and the country as a whole. In 2017, Morocco recorded 3,274 fatal accidents causing 3,726 deaths and more than 10 thousand serious injuries. According to MEW statistics, fatal accidents are recorded in good road and weather conditions, i.e., well-paved roads, dry surfaces between 6 and 10.5 meters wide, and in normal weather.