Er.

Bishwo Khanal
M.Sc. Transportation Engineering and Management
Khanalbishow@gmail.com

ACCIDENT FACTORS AND ROAD SAFETY

The rising trend of motorization and improving socio-economic status of people directly influences the
aggravating road safety situation with fatalities and permanently disabled injuries over the past
decades. According to the latest WHO data published in April 2011, Road Traffic Accidents(RTA) deaths
rate globally is 11.44 per 100,000 of population and road traffic accident is the 15th cause of death
among various other causes like tuberculosis, cancer etc. According to traffic directorate, total number
of road fatalities in Nepal in past decade was going decreasing in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2005 in
comparison with base year 2001 but it became increasing since 2006 and seems very much
threatening in 2009. The number of death of passengers and pedestrians per 10000 vehicles is also
increasing steeply since 2006.The trend of minor injury; serious injury and fatality are also in increasing
trend and was steeply rising from 2006 to 2010.
Due to this staggering rate of accident globally in worldwide, I made an attempt to do research in
accident factor and road safety. The research has identified the major factors and causes of road
accident in Nepal, these causes and factors are processed using a mathematical tool Analytical
Heirarchial Process with which the percentage of factors and causes of RTA is computed. Key
informant interview was conducted among experts by snowball sampling in the field of road safety in
Nepal including senior officer of Traffic Police, Officers from Department of Roads, Kathmandu
Metropolitan City, Kathmandu Valley Development Authority and Consultants.
The Expert Questionnaire Survey form was prepared and distributed to 20 experts from various
organizations related to road safety in Nepal, the Relative Weight Matrix (RWM) tables were prepared
for each expert and weightage of safety factors were obtained, by calculating the eigenvector of the
RWM. The eigenvector gives the weights of each item based on the experts viewpoint. The relative
weight of each criterion after processing in AHP is presented in tabular form below.
1.

Human Factors

A.

Over Speeding

B.

Drink and Drive

Road Factors

C.

Road pavement Conditions

D.

Road Geometry

57.22%
37.69%
19.52%
26.99%
6.46%
11.65%

E.

Road Infrastructure

3.

Vehicle Factors

F.

Vehicle Conditions (Accelerators, Brake, Tire, Headlight)

4.

Environment Factor

G.

Time of Ride

H.

Weather

8.88%
6.45%
6.45%
9.32%
3.25%
6.07%

According to the table above, human factor is the major factor of road accident which shows 37.69 % of
total accident is caused by over speeding and 19.52% of accident is caused by drunk driving similarly
road geometry is responsible for 11.65%, road infrastructure 8.88% and road pavement condition
6.42% of total road accident. The table also shows vehicle factors are responsible for 6.45% of total
accident likewise environment factor is responsible for 9.32% of total road accident in Nepalese roads.
The driver and pedestrian characteristics therefore are very dominant factors responsible for road
accident if driver and pedestrian can improve their certain characteristics and behaviour the road
accident decreases to the huge extent.
The determination of accident factors is very important for road safety. The accident factor may vary
with place and driver behaviour hence determining these factors will help in improving road safety of
the particular road. Accidents involving pedestrians increase with urbanization. They are usually the
victims of hit and run. This increased risk-involving pedestrians as a result of the lack of crosswalks and
sidewalks and inadequate lighting on roads with lesser carriageway. Together with other factors such as
alcohol abuse and pedestrian carelessness, the numbers of accident increases.