No.45 In 2023
Title
Evaluation of risk factors for road accidents under mixed traffic: Case study on Indian highways
Recipient
Sujata Basu, Pritam Saha
Reason for award
In emerging countries, economic growth is accompanied by a rapid increase in automobile traffic, rendering traffic accidents a major social problem. Numerous studies have analyzed the causes of traffic accidents. However, the highways in West Bengal, India, the focus of this study, have varying levels of maintenance and traffic conditions and include risk factors for traffic accidents that previous studies focusing on developed countries have not considered.
This study examined the multifaceted road characteristics of 13 sections in the target area, including surrounding land use, road surface conditions, and traffic conditions, and attempted to identify influencing factors by analyzing them in relation to accident data.
Specifically, it addressed four factors: road factors including sidewalks, shoulders, the number of intersections, and the number of lanes; vehicle factors such as the type of vehicle involved, acceleration/deceleration characteristics, and brake performance; human factors, namely drowsiness, fatigue, alcohol use, drug use, age, illness, psychological stress, and obsessions; and external factors such as weather conditions and nighttime visibility.
Regarding these factors, the paper first presents simply tabulated traffic conditions and then organizes the relationship between shoulder and sidewalk conditions and the occurrence of traffic accidents. Parameters are then calculated, assuming a Poisson distribution of the number of accidents by traffic volume and shoulder/sidewalk conditions. These factors' impacts on traffic accidents are then analyzed. The research also describes the relationship between the number of intersections and the number of accidents, the frequency of accidents in each of the studied sections and by travel mode, and the occurrence of traffic accidents according to the number of lanes and by time of day.
The conclusions are that mid-block access, sidewalk and shoulder conditions, vehicle and driving conditions, time of day, and the number of lanes influence the occurrence of traffic accidents. The paper parameterizes the occurrence of accidents using a Poisson distribution and analyzes them quantitatively. Although only a qualitative assessment of traffic accident risk is presented using descriptive statistics, the research attempted to understand risk factors under mixed traffic. We recognize the researchers' efforts in collecting field survey-based data and quantifying accident risk in India, a region where road accident data are not well developed. Given that the risk of traffic accidents is rapidly increasing in developing countries as motorization progresses, the study is commendable for collecting and analyzing data to address this important social issue; therefore, we highly appreciate the excellent paper because we believe it provides findings that other developing countries can consult.