IJERT-Road Traffic Accident Analysis of Motorways in Pakistan (original) (raw)

2013, International Journal of Engineering Research and Technology (IJERT)

https://www.ijert.org/road-traffic-accident-analysis-of-motorways-in-pakistan https://www.ijert.org/research/road-traffic-accident-analysis-of-motorways-in-pakistan-IJERTV2IS111222.pdf Highway Safety is one of the most important aspects of transportation engineering as traffic accidents are unavoidable in human life. Developing nations including Pakistan are faced with new dimension of highway safety challenges after the advent of motorways, safety management of motorways demand more meticulous addressal of safety issues due to involvement of high speed dynamics. This Study presents a method by which the accident-prone locations on roads, commonly termed as accident blackspots, can be identified. Motorway (M-2) connecting Lahore to Islamabad, one of the major motorways of Pakistan has been selected for study. The reasons for the accidents can be attributed to the lack of driving skill, lack of education, economic values, lack of signage, geometric design problems and improper design of pedestrian crossing. There are however, other factors, which contribute directly or indirectly to the accidents include road, vehicle, road user and environmental factors. After analysis it was found that, accidents are majorly caused by careless driving (25%), dozing at wheel (23%), tyre burst (18%), brake failure (9%) and pedestrian crossing (6%). Proper traffic guidance and control system to guide road users ensuring safe movement of vehicles has been recommended and some of the low cost facilities such as pedestrian crossings underpasses near Lahore, dozing alert alarm to minimize dozing, tyre checking gauges to counter tyre burst, training to avoid brake failure, and advertisement through print and electronic media to increase awareness have also been proposed in order to improve the safety of the road and minimize the accidents.