## 4 Results and Discussion
This would likely divert traffic from the E60 road in the Cluj-Napoca-Oradea sector, reducing traffic incidents and their territorial impact. The A7 motorway, spanning Ploiesti-Bacau-Pascani-Siret, would also significantly impact the spatial arrangement of impact classes and traffic incident density. Its construction would alleviate traffic on the high-impact E85 European road sectors. This beneficial effect is already observable in Bacau, where a completed section of the A7 motorway acts as a bypass, resulting in a modeled small to very small cumulative impact in the area, further validating the research approach. The vulnerability associated with cumulative impact underscores problem areas in traffic incidents, inducing various risk categories/classes in the territory. The assessment and spatial identification of risks posed by traffic incidents, based on territorial vulnerability, are categorized into two major groups: high risk and very high risk. Across the whole of Romania, 191 high-risk hotspots (with a cumulative impact of less than 1000 m) have been identified, predominantly along major European roadways that experience heavy traffic, both for personal travel and particularly for freight transportation. Furthermore, 44 very-high-risk hotspots (with a cumulative impact of less than 500 m) are geographically concentrated primarily in and around large cities or at the periphery of major urban centers. These areas are characterized as transit zones or traffic conglomerates, typically found on the outskirts of urban areas (Figure 8). Figure 8: Spatial distribution of different types of hotspots. Since the research methodology focuses on analyzing areas with a certain degree of impact, risk identification is based on a conditional query analysis of cumulative impact and territorial vulnerability. Within this framework, two specific conditioning formulas were devised, tailored to each risk category:  
if (cumulated impact < 1000 m) and (surface < 1 kmp) = risc mare  
if (cumulated impact < 500 m) and (surface < 1 kmp) = risc foarte mare  
For identifying the final areas of high risk, the criteria stipulate that the cumulative impact must fall within the very high vulnerability category, and the surface area of the identified region should not exceed 1 km\({}^{2}\). Conversely, for areas classified as very high risk, the approach involves reducing the impact area by half while maintaining its surface area. This decision aligns with Romanian road legislation, which defines road sectors prone to frequent accidents as 1 km sections where numerous accidents have occurred over successive years. Following the application of these specifically developed equations to the underlying data, a total of 17 spatial areas across Romania were identified as falling into the high-risk category. Additionally, three areas with spatial extensions were categorized as very high risk. The largest concentration of high-risk areas was found within the Bucharest municipality and its surrounding regions. The remaining high-risk areas are predominantly situated along European or national roads, with the more extensive areas located to the south of Focsani and south of Adjud (Figure 9). The very-high-risk category comprises a smaller number of areas, owing to the stricter criteria applied in the analysis. This category is notably characterized by three areas, which are situated within the urban boundaries of Bucharest and Brasov (Figure 10). Figure 9: Areas in the high-risk category. The spatial analysis undertaken to assess the impact, vulnerability, and risk associated with traffic incidents underscores the territorial challenges primarily caused by the structure, density, and layout of Romania's road networks. Additionally, these challenges are exacerbated by driver behavior in areas of high traffic volume, especially on European roads and on national or county roads that serve as connectors to major traffic arteries.