Accident Analysis of Bangladesh And It’s Preventive Measures

A Presentation By:
Tauhid Ahmed Supervised By:
Mosheur Rahman Md. Sabuj
Sadika Sabira Taki
Lecturer,
Faridpur Engineering College,

Department of Civil
Engineering.
Background:
Highway safety is of serious concern not only to the highway authorities but
also to the whole nation, as they involve in loss of human lives and properties.
Increase in vehicular growth and there by the traffic on Bangladesh roads is of
serious concern. Even though the accidents growth rate is declaiming over the last
ten years, but the number of accidents is of serious concern to the authorities. The
reasons for accidents are many folds and among them, high speeding of vehicles is
the major factor contributing to the accidents. This study aimed at conducting an
investigation to understand the causes of accidents for improving highway safety in
Bangladesh. And also about finding the preventive measures of it.

 Key-Terms

•Road Traffic Accidents: A road accident refers to any accident involving at least
one road vehicle occuring on any time of the day.
•Accident Factor: The Causes of accidents are dependent on some factors, which
is divided into three catagories as below:

Accident
Factors Behavior

Vehicle

Ambit
•Accident Analysis: Accident analysis is carried out in order to determine
the cause or causes of an accident, so that to prevent further accidents of
similar kind.

•Traffic Safety: Traffic safety refers to the methods and measures used to
prevent road users from being killed or seriously injure
 Literature review: The Highway Safety Manual(HMS) defines safety as”
The crush frequency and crash severity type for a specific time period.

The Highway Safety Manual (HSM) defines safety as “the crash frequency
and/or crash severity and collision type for a specific time period, at a given
location, and for a given set of geometric and operational conditions”. Safety
is defined in similar terms by the American Association of State Highway and
Transportation Officials. More number of accidents are being reported in
developing countries compared to developed countries.Baniket.al(2011)
reported that road traffic accidents in developing countries is worse and of
serious concern due to the facts under reporting of accidents and use of
scrapped vehicles which are not removed from the records. Nantulya (2002)
reported that in developing countries poor people are the vulnerable section
mostly affected by road accident and crashes. In 1998, more than 85 percent
of deaths and 90 percent of disability occurred due to road traffic accidents
occurred in developing countries, Budania.
M. et al, (2014)., concluded that regular checks on fitness of the vehicles and
checks at all the stages of road execution like planning, construction, operation
and maintenance is required to achieve accident free roads.
Chelugo&Chepchieng et al, (2015)., collected accident information from the
police stations in Nairobi and also elicited the opinion of road users on highway
safety and developed indicators for accident frequency and accident crash rate.
Farag,S.Ibrahim et al, (2014)., analyzed accident data at signalized and un
signalized intersections and roundabouts in Dhofar Governorate, Oman and
concluded most of the accident are occurring at T-Intersections. And concluded
rear-end accidents are the most frequent occurring accident types at urban
intersections.
Sumaila & Abdul Ganiyu Femi (2013)., carried a study in Nigeria on trends in
road crashes and gave a critical review of current road safety approaches with a
view to identifying their defects and deficiencies in tackling the traffic accident
problem in the country. Montello (2009) evaluated highway geometric design
parameters for the effectiveness of highway safety. It is reported that all the
curves are characterized by low radius and high deflection angle, limited sight
distance, and limited super elevation.
Measures for improvement of horizontal curves are suggested.Vorgelegt et al
(2013) investigated the effects of route familiarity and driving conditions
(open road vs. car following) on visual scanning patterns of experienced
drivers. Their results revealed that the driver's visual scanning systematically
depends on the task to be performed. Occurrence of accidents on highways is
a result of many complex factors such as highway geometry, driver behavior
and human factors, speed limits, vehicle functions, and environmental
conditions (Hashim, I.H. (2006)). Effective analysis and understanding of
the accident causative parameters facilitate to improve highway safety
performance. Al-Maniri et al (2013) carried statistical analysis of the data on
road traffic fatalities in Oman between1995 to 2009 and concluded that
overall, mortality increased by around 50%. There was a significant increase
in the proportion of deaths and death rates among individuals aged 26-50
years, males, Omani nationals, and drivers.A.S. Hakkert et.al.,(2002)
estimated accident rates at different at grade intersections as a function of
average daily traffic volumes.
Objectives of the Research:

The aim of this study is to understand the causes of road accidents and thereby to
suggest preventive measures for the improvement in highway safety in Muscat.
Specific objectives of the study include:

•To collect road accident data for the last few years and analyze the reasons for the
causes of accidents.

•To collect speed data on selected roads during peak and non-peak hours to
examine the role of speed in accidents.

•To categorize causes of accidents in to various groups, human, highway geometry,

vehicle condition, environmental etc.

•To identify the causes of accidents and thereby to suggest preventivemeasures for
accident reduction.
Methodology:

•Data Collection:
Accident data from Accident Resarch Institute, BUET.The collected data
is collated to establish indicators and the trends in accidents over the last few
years. Personal interviews from the officials of ARI helped the investigators to
understand the reasons for the occurrence of accidents and ongoing accident
preventive measures. Also operating speeds of the vehicles captured on the
selected roads, analyzed and collated to draw conclusions that high speed is
the major causative factor responsible for road traffic accidents (RTA).
•Data Analysis:
Every year the lives of approximately 1.25 million people are cut short as a
result of a road traffic crash. Between 20 and 50 million more people suffer non-
fatal injuries, with many incurring a disability as a result of their injury. In global
context road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people,
aged 15–29 years. About 90% of the world's fatalities on the roads occur in low-
and middle-income countries, even though these countries have approximately half
of the world's vehicles. Half of those dying on the world’s roads are “vulnerable
road users”: pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclists. Without action, road traffic
crashes are predicted to rise to become the 7th leading cause of death by 2030.
Road traffic injuries cause considerable economic losses to victims, their families,
and to nations as a whole. These losses arise from the cost of treatment (including
rehabilitation and incident investigation) as well as reduced/lost productivity (e.g.
in wages) for those killed or disabled by their injuries, and for family members who
need to take time off work (or school) to care for the injured.
There are few global estimates of the costs of injury, but research carried out in
2010 suggests that road traffic crashes cost countries approximately 3% of their
gross national product. This figure rises to 5% in some low- and middle-income
countries. The newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’s has set
an ambitious road safety target of halving the global number of deaths and injuries
from road traffic crashes by 2020. Road traffic injuries have been neglected from
the global health agenda for many years, despite being predictable and largely
preventable. Evidence from many countries shows that dramatic successes in
preventing road traffic crashes can be achieved through concerted efforts that
involve, but are not limited to, the health sector. There has been an alarming rise in
road accidents, significantly highway accidents, in Bangladesh over the past few
years. According to a study conducted by the Accident Research Centre (ARC) of
BUET, road accidents claim on average 12,000 lives annually and lead to about
35,000 injuries. According to World Bank statistics, annual fatality rate from road
accidents is found to be 85.6 fatalities per 10,000 vehicles. Hence, the roads in
Bangladesh have become deadly.
Number of Accident by Accident by Accident Severity
[Source: Accident Research Institute (ARI), Data 2013, Table 1]

Table: Numberof Casualties by Casualty Injury

•Major Causes of Road Accidents:

1.The carelessness and inexperience of drivers.

2.Most of the drivers have no driving license.
3.Defective and Obsolete vehicles.
4.Paucity of roads and narrow roads.
5.The trend of competing 2hile driving.
6.The overtaking tendency of enjudicious drivers.
7.Violeting the traffic rules by both drivers and mass people.
8.The lack of dividers in road.
9.The lack of over-bridges.
10.The extreme carelessness of
crossing the roads.
11.Illigal occupying of footpath by
hawkers.
12.The excessive amount of rickshaw
and vans in the highway.
13.The lack of adequate plans by the government to reduce road casualties.
14.The lack of implementation of strict traffic laws.
15.The reckless driving by the careless driver.
16.The carelessness and irresponsibility of traffic police.
17.The illegal construction and market near the road.
18.Political instability, strikes, protest or hartals force to occur traffic
congestion and sometimes this congestion turns into accidents.
19.The lack of knowledge of mass people.
20.Suprecious oil used in vehicles.
21.Vehicles carrying excessive amount of
Passengers.
•Remedial Measures of Road Accidents:

1.The drivers should be inspired to drive consciously.

2.The playing of illegal rickshaws should be banned in urban areas and in highway
roads.
3.The parking of vehicles in unschedule places should be prohibited.
4.The expertness and qualification of drivers should be cautionly looked over before
offering liscence.
5.The driver without liscence should be brought into trial.
6.The driver should check their vehicles before stepping down on the roads.
7.The indicted drivers of occuring accidents should be brought into trial.
8.The illegal occupancy of footpath by the hawkers should be evicted.
9.The street traffic laws should be followed by everyone.
10.The recquired number of traffic police should be appointed.
11.The vigilance on the activities of traffic police should be increased to boost
the services.
12.The overtaking tendency must be stopped.
13.The illegal crossing by general people must be stopped.
14.The required number of over-bridges must be built.
15.The alternative roads must be constructed to stop the playing of people and
rickshaws in the highway road.
16.Illegal extorsion must be stopped on the streets.
17.Mass awareness is the very crutialk fact for reducing this predicament.
8.The defective and obsulate vehicles should be vanished from the roads.
9.The hastiness of getting down and into the buses by the people must be
stopped.
10.The prevailing traffic laws need to be reformed.
11.The service of public buses should be promotted.
Conclusion

The unconditional remedy of reducing this problem is

to stop the excessive flow of population. The excessive
population is the main cause of making our country
crippled. Road accident should be declared as the
natural disaster and the prompt and effective actions
are must needed to mitigate this problems. The more
delay to take actions the more dept tolls to be brought.
:
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Thank You