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Analysis of Prime Reasons for Night Time Accidents in Public Transport

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Conference Paper · January 2014

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 Analysis of Prime Reasons for Night Time Accidents in Public Transport
Corporations

P. Pitchipoo1, D.S. Vincent2, and S. Rajakarunakaran3

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering, P.S.R. Engineering College, Sivakasi – 626140, India.
2
Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation Ltd., Madurai, Tamil Nadu, India
3
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kalasalingam University, Krishnankoil-626 126, India.
Email: drpitchipoo@gmail.com

Abstract

Indian statistics reveal that more than 60% accidents occur during night time. Poor visibility, driver’s visual
fatigue & performance etc were identified as prime factors for more accidents during night time. Visibility is related
to the factors like glare, brightness, scattered right, insufficient light, reflection of lights, eyes power to regain its
original vision etc., During night one’s judgment will be poor and can’t able to judge other vehicle’s speed
correctly. To avoid poor visibility, proper designing of illumination system is stressed. During night, being seen is
an important as seeing. Road Geometry will sometimes mar the visibility which may cause accidents. Driver’s
fatigue is more during night since the driver is doing his work against the nature. And also the eye strain is more
during night; hence concentration and thus performance will be less. Time of accident is also having effect on Night
accidents because of its involvement of fatigue and performance. In addition to that lack of sign board and
invisibility of sign board during nights will also cause accidents. Weather plays an important role for night
accidents. The atmosphere like monotony repetition, tiredness, psychological factors like euphoria, fear is also the
causes for night accidents. A case study is also performed among a group of drivers through a questionnaire. As per
the results of the questionnaire, the prime reasons for night accidents are identified. Also this paper aims to identify
the reasons for the accidents and their weightage using FARE (Factor Relationship) method. Finally a comparison
is made between the two different approaches.
Keywords: Transport Safety, Night Accidents, Prime Reasons, FARE.

1.0 INTRODUCTİON society ages, and as our predictable reliance on cars

continues. As motorization increases in the world, any
More than a million people are killed and tens
investment to improve transportation or to make it safer
millions are injured each year during road accidents in
will have global implications. But the rates of public
the world. The costs are shocking. In 2000, road traffic
investment for road safety remain low.
injuries were the ninth leading cause of disability (Peden
Accidents are not often due to ignorance, but are
et al., 2004). Approximately 60% accidents occur during
due to carelessness, thoughtlessness and over
night time. Our roadways are becoming more crowded,
confidence. Human, vehicle and environmental factors
creating a spectrum of problems ranging from
play roles in the accidents. (Nilambar et al., 2004).
pedestrian, bicycle, vehicle occupant, and motorcycle
Mohan and Bawa (1985) have done an analysis on road
injuries to environmental pollution, noise, and health
traffic accidents in Delhi, India. Night driving is
problems. These are worldwide problems that will grow
generally accepted to be more dangerous than daylight
more serious as travel and population size increase, as
 Analysis of Prime Reasons for Night Time Accidents in Public Transport Corporations

driving (Rumar, 1990). High rate of crashes involving the reply given by them the main and foremost reasons
pedestrians are happened at night because visibility for night accidents were categorized.
under night driving conditions is severely restricted. Eloholma et al. (2006) identified the visual
Night driving tends to be riskier when illumination is problems, human related problems and other related
provided by the vehicle’s headlamps, since the factors influence the nighttime accidents. The sub
illumination available is limited and drivers tend to criteria considered under the visual problems of the
overrun their headlamps (Hall, 1983). Some drivers driver are vision, light, brightness, glare, driver’s seat
avoid driving during nighttime due to poor visibility and design, glass, mirror and road geometry. Similarly under
the problem with glare (Knoblauch et al., 1997). Gozias the human related factors, driver’s fatigue, driver’s
et al. (1997) analysed the factors affecting road safety performance, concentration and time of accident were
by conducting a case study in Greek. Vehicle crashes are taken for study. Influence of alcohol, sign board and
the leading cause of accidental death and most of them weather are considered as the other related factor
occur during nighttime (Blanco et al., 2001). Unlike influencing for night time accidents. The questionnaire
developed countries, many developing countries have was prepared based on the forementioned factors.
made very little progress towards addressing the
problems related to accidents. Nonetheless, there are 3.0 RESULT AND DISCUSSION
ways to strengthen the reduction of road traffic accidents
The questionnaires were given to 98 drivers who are
(Atubi, 2012). Statistics indicate that over 90 percent of
working in the Madurai region of the transport
traffic accident situations can be attributed to driver
coporation and their responses were collected.
errors (Aworemi et al, 2009). Road accidents appear to
3.1 Analysis through questionnaire
occur regularly at some flash points such as where there
Category-wise reasons for night accidents are shown
are sharp bends, potholes and at bad sections of the
in Fig.1. From the Fig. 1, it is evident that visual factors
highways. At such points over speeding drivers usually
are the foremost reason and next comes the human
find it difficult to control their vehicles, which then
related factors.
result to fatal traffic accidents, especially at night (Atubi
and Onokala, 2009). Ginevicius (2011) developed a new
method of determining the criteria weights called FARE,
based on the relationships between all the criteria
describing the phenomenon considered. In the first
stage, the relationships between the set of criteria and
their strength and direction were elicited from experts.
Based on the conditions of functioning and the specific
features of the complete set of criteria, the relations
between each criterion of the set and their direction are
determined analytically. Finally the total impact of each
particular criterion on other criteria of the set which is
nothing but the criteria weights were determined. The
intention of this paper is to identify the various reasons
for the accidents, analyze their influence and prioritize
them using FARE method. The case study was
performed among a group of drivers in a transport
corporation. Finally the comparisons are made.
Fig 1: Reasons for Night Accedents
2.0 CASE STUDY In going into the details of visual factors, (Fig.2)
glass, mirror & brightness are the main factors
Tamil Nadu, one of the states in India, is having
contributing more for night accidents. Recommendations
eight transport divisions satisfying, the transport need of
are given in this paper to increase visibility by providing
people. Madurai region is one among the eight divisions,
quality non reflectable glass, mirror and brightness of the
having a fleet strength of 1235 vehicles covering nearly
head light. In respect of human factors (Fig.3), it is clear
4 Lakh km/ day and nearly 9 lakh people are using these
from the pie chart that fatigue is the prime reason for
vehicles per day. Many of the vehicles run in the rural
night accidents.
area and mainly through thickly populated residential
area. Among the 14 branches of Madurai region, 98
drivers were selected as sample for the case study. A
questionnaire was prepared and given to them. Based on
 Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Industrial Engineering Applications (ICAIEA2014) January 6-8,2014

3.2 Analysis through FARE

In this paper, FARE method is used to prioritize the

influencing factors for the nighttime accidents. FARE is
a new weight determining method is used to compute the
weights of each criterion. Ginevicius (2011) developed
FARE method for determining the criteria weights in
multi criteria decision making environment. First the
potential impact of the criteria is determined using
equation (1).
P = S (m - 1) (1)
where P – Potential of the system’s criterion impact; S –
Maximum value of the scale of evaluation used (Table1);
m – Number of the system’s criteria (For this paper 16
criteria were considered).

Table 1: Scale of quantitative evaluation of

Fig.2: Visual Factors interrelationship between the system’s criteria
For that also, recommendations are given in this
paper to reduce fatigue of the drivers. S.No. Type of the Effect Rating of the Effect
Produced Produced by
Interrelationship (in
points)
1 Almost none 1
2 Very Weak 2
3 Weak 3
4 Lower than Average 4
5 Average 5
6 Higher than average 6
7 Strong 7
8 Very Strong 8
9 Almost absolute 9
10 Absolute 10

For this problem, the potential impact of the

criteria is found as 150. Next the criteria are ranked by
Fig.3: Human Factors the experts based on the importance which is shown in
The contribution among the other reasons are given Table 2. Then the relationship between the criteria is
in Fig.4. determined based on the rank using Table 1. The
procedure is as follows: the criterion of a lower rank has
the smaller impact on the criteria having higher ranks
and, therefore, it should transfer a larger part of its
potential impact to them. The impact of the criteria ai on
the main criterion is determined and then, this impact is
transformed as follows:
a1i = S – ã1i (2)
where, ai – the impact of ith criterion on the first main
criterion; ãi – the part of ith criterion’s potential impact
transferred to the main criterion
The total impact of any criterion, as well as the
consistency level of a subset may be determined based
on the data provided in the form of matrix. The subset
considered in the matrix is consistent and stable if the
total impact of its criteria with a positive sign is equal to
their total impact with a negative sign, i.e. their sum is
equal to zero (Ginevicius, 2011). Next the total impact Pi
Fig.4: Contribution of Other Factors calculated using equation (3).
 Analysis of Prime Reasons for Night Time Accidents in Public Transport Corporations

m After that, the total potential, required for

Pi = ∑ aij j ≠ i (3) determining the criteria weights, will be calculated based
i =1 on the data presented in the first row of the matrix,
Table 2: Criteria Rank thereby making the filling of all other rows of the matrix
Rank Criteria / Factor unnecessary. The following equation (4) is used for
1. Fatique (F) determining the total potential and is shown in Table 4.
Pi = P1 – m. a1i, (4)
2. Visibility (V) where Pi – the total impact (dependence) of the ith
3. Light (L) criterion.
Finally, the criteria weights can be determined using
4. Driver’s performance ( DP)
equation (5).
5. Concentration (C)
6. Glass (G) Pi j P1 − ma1i + S (m − 1)
Wi = = (5)
7. Mirror (M) PS mS (m − 1)
8. Brightness (B)
where PS = Total potential of a set of criteria which is
9. Weather (W)
found using equation (6) and
10. Sign board (S)
Pi j = Actual total impact of the ith criterion of the
11. Time of accident (T) system which is calculated using equation (7)
12. Others (O) Finally using the equations (3) to (5), the weights of
the criteria are determined and tabulated in the Table 5.
13. Driver seat design (DSD)
PS = m. P = mS (m - 1) (6)
14. Road geometry (RG)
Pi j = Pi + P (7)
15. Glare (GL) where Pi = Total impact produced by the ith criterion
16 Alcohol (A) of the system or its total dependence on other criteria.
From the rank of the criteria, using Table 1 the
relationship between the criteria is determined and given
in Table 3.
Table 3: Relationship Between the First Main Criterion and Other System’s Criteria
V L B GL DSD G M RG F DP C T A S W O
V
-4 3 6 5 2 2 6 -4 -4 1 4 7 4 3 5
L
4 6 8 8 5 6 8 -1 2 5 7 9 7 7 7
B
-3 -6 4 3 -2 -1 4 -5 -6 -2 2 5 2 1 3
GL
-6 -8 -4 -2 -5 -5 -1 -8 -8 -6 -3 1 -3 -4 -2
DSD
-5 -8 -3 2 -4 -4 1 -7 -7 -5 -2 2 -2 -3 -1
G
-2 -5 2 5 4 1 5 -5 -5 -1 3 6 3 2 4
M
-2 -6 1 5 4 -1 4 -5 -5 -2 3 5 2 2 3
RG
-6 -8 -4 1 -1 -5 -4 -7 -8 -5 -2 2 -3 -3 -2
F
4 1 5 8 7 5 5 7 2 5 6 9 6 6 6
DP
4 -2 6 8 7 5 5 8 -2 5 7 9 7 6 7
C
-1 -5 2 6 5 1 2 5 -5 -5 4 6 3 3 4
T
-4 -7 -2 3 2 -3 -3 2 -6 -7 -4 3 -1 -2 1
A
-7 -9 -5 -1 -2 -6 -5 -2 -9 -9 -6 -3 -4 -4 -3
S
-4 -7 -2 3 2 -3 -2 3 -6 -7 -3 1 4 -1 2
W
-3 -7 -1 4 3 -2 -2 3 -6 -6 -3 2 4 1 2
O
-5 -7 -3 2 1 -4 -3 2 -6 -7 -4 -1 3 -2 -2
 Table 4: Part of the Criterion Potential Impact Transferred to the First Main Criterion

V L B GL DSD G M RG F DP C T A S W O
V
-6 7 4 5 8 8 4 -6 -6 9 6 3 6 7 5
L
6 4 2 2 5 4 2 -9 8 5 3 1 3 3 3
B
-7 -4 6 7 -8 -9 6 -5 -4 -8 8 5 8 9 7
GL
-4 -2 -6 -8 -5 -5 -9 -2 -2 -4 -7 9 -7 -6 -8
DSD
-5 -2 -7 8 -6 -6 9 -3 -3 -5 -8 8 -8 -7 -9
G
-8 -5 8 5 6 9 5 -5 -5 -9 7 4 7 8 6
M
-8 -4 9 5 6 -9 6 -5 -5 -8 7 5 8 8 7
RG
-4 -2 -6 9 -9 -5 -6 -3 -2 -5 -8 8 -7 -7 -8
F
6 9 5 2 3 5 5 3 8 5 4 1 4 4 4
DP
6 -8 4 2 3 5 5 2 -8 5 3 1 3 4 3
C
-9 -5 8 4 5 9 8 5 -5 -5 6 4 7 7 6
T
-6 -3 -8 7 8 -7 -7 8 -4 -3 -6 7 -9 -8 9
A
-3 -1 -5 -9 -8 -4 -5 -8 -1 -1 -4 -7 -6 -6 -7
S
-6 -3 -8 7 8 -7 -8 7 -4 -3 -7 9 6 -9 8
W
-7 -3 -9 6 7 -8 -8 7 -4 -4 -7 8 6 9 8
O
-5 -3 -7 8 9 -6 -7 8 -4 -3 -6 -9 7 -8 -8

Table 5: Actual Impact and Weights of the Criteria

Actual total
Criteria criteria weights
impact ( (wi)
Visibility
204 0.085
Light
192 0.080
Brightness
161 0.067
Glare
84 0.035
Dr. seat design
106 0.044
Glass
183 0.076
Mirror
172 0.072
Road geometry
95 0.040
Fatique
218 0.091
Dr. performance
180 0.075
Concentration Fig 5: Reasons for Night Accedents – From FARE
195 0.081
Method
Time of accident
128 0.053
Alcohol
75 0.031
Sign board
140 0.058
Weather
151 0.063
Others
116 0.048

The observations based on FARE are shown in Fig.

5 to Fig 8.
 Analysis of Prime Reasons for Night Time Accidents in Public Transport Corporations
Fig.6: Visual Factors – From FARE Method
Fig.7: Human Factors – From FARE Method
Fig.8: Contribution of Other Factors – From FARE
Method
The comaprioson between the questionnaire
approach and the FARE approch is show in the Fig. 9.
From Fig. 10, it is clearly understood that there is no
change in the order of the priority using two different
approaches. But a small deviation is noted. Both
approaches reveal that the fatigue of the driver is trhe
main reason for the night time accidents.
4.0 CONCLUSİONS
As per the results of the questionnaire as well as
FARE method, the visual problems are the prime reason
for night accidents. Even though the visual probles are
the major influencing factor for night accidents, the
fatigue of the driver is the top most reason for night
accidents. Both conventional and scientific approaches
gave the same result. This study gives the direction to
the transport officials for the possible reduction of the
night accidents. Based on the output some
recommendations can be given by the experts. If the
recommendations are followed strictly, then there are
great chances of reducing night accidents.
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 Proceedings of International Conference on Advances in Industrial Engineering Applications (ICAIEA2014) January 6-8,2014

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