Estimates by the World Health Organization suggest that, on a yearly basis, road crashes kill 1.25 million people—nearly 3400 road fatalities per day—and injure up to 50 million. Traffic injuries are ...not equally spread over the world, however; some countries are hit harder than others, and the chance of being killed in a road crash depends on where one lives. Almost 90% of all traffic casualties occur in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Globally, the number of fatalities per 100,000 population (mortality rate) ranges from less than 3 to almost 40. The rate is less than 9 in high-income countries (HIC) but averages around 20 in LMIC, with the African region demonstrating the highest rate (26.6). While road safety trends have been positive in HIC over the last few decades, trends in LMIC are not telling a positive story: road fatalities are expected to increase to almost 2 million road fatalities per year by 2020.
The United Nations has adopted several resolutions on road safety and proposes actions to tackle the global road safety crisis. Considering the current level of road safety to be unacceptable, the UN has taken several initiatives. One effort, the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011–2020, has generated substantial activity around the world over the last couple of years. Furthermore, it is very encouraging that the UN included road safety in the Sustainable Development Goals that it laid out in September 2015. Road safety is part of the public health agenda and the urban development agenda. Measured in “real actions,” however, the responses so far from the overall global community and individual countries do not suggest that we are already on the right track to bringing down the death toll on roads.
The future of road safety is uncertain and definitely not the same for all regions of the world. Countries with a mature road safety approach and an ambition to make further progress are expected to move in the direction of a pro-active approach: a Safe System approach. It is reported that many LMIC, meanwhile, are on the brink of designing road safety strategies and implementing action plans. The international community is willing to support LMIC, but LMIC cannot simply copy successful HIC strategies because local circumstances differ. The principles of successful HIC strategies are applicable, but the priorities and action plans should take root in and align with local conditions.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Road deaths and injuries constitute a major global burden of disease, with Africa the worst affected region. Two successive UN Global Decades of Action (2011–2020 and 2021–2030) have focused on ...pillars of action aimed at halving road deaths. Pillar 1, Road Safety Management, requires a road safety institutional framework (RSIF) containing three legs: i) a road safety lead agency, ii) road safety funding, and iii) a national road safety strategy with timebound death reduction targets.
We used a regional benchmarking approach to examine RSIFs in the 16 member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), which make up 26% of Africa's population and a third of its land mass. Using data from the World Health Organization's 2018 Global Status Report on Road Safety, we computed an RSIF score for each state and visually depicted its RSIF as a three-legged pot with full, partial, or missing legs. We also performed correlational analyses to determine whether there were relationships between member states' RSIF scores and WHO-estimated death rates, GDP per capita, governance scores on the BertelsmanStiftung Transformation Index (BTI-g) and scores on the Human Development Index (HDI).
In 2018, most SADC member states’ RSIFs consisted of “wobbly three-legged pots”. Leg i (road safety lead agency) was most present, being evident in 80% of the member states. Legs ii (funding) and iii (national road safety strategy) were each present in 73%; however, in most cases, they were deficient compared with global best practice. The only statistically significant correlation we found was between RSIF scores and BTI-g scores.
The SADC lagged behind the continent as a whole with respect to lead agencies, with other researchers noting that >90% of African countries had such agencies. The two member states with the highest RSIF scores and lowest death rates (Mauritius and Seychelles) are amongst the wealthiest in the region and have extremely small populations. Overall, the SADC was skewed towards low RSIF scores (correlated with poor governance scores) and high death rates.
Almost all SADC member states require strengthening of all three RSIF legs to bring them into line with global best practice for Pillar 1, Road Safety Management. Collective regional improvement could be facilitated by longstanding intergovernmental cooperation (with high levels of cross-border traffic) and growing civil society involvement in road safety. If the SADC could become an exemplar on the continent this would boost the chances of halving African road deaths and substantially reducing global deaths by 2030.
•Pillar 1 of the Global Decade of Action for Road Safety is Road Safety Management 83.•This requires a three-legged Road Safety Institutional Framework (RSIF) 74.•The Southern African Development Community (SADC) has high road death rates 78.•Almost all SADC member states have RSIF deficiencies in one, two or three legs 81.•Addressing these could boost Africa's prospects of halving road deaths by 2030 80.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Background: Road safety is an issue of great concern across the world. In the last year 1,354,840 road users have died equivalent to 3712 deaths per day in the world. It is crucial to create ...awareness about the road safety to instill responsible behavior among citizens. Objectives: To assess baseline knowledge and practices of road safety among medical students. To compare the change in knowledge and practices assessed one month after a video assisted awareness program. Methodology: An interventional study was conducted among medical students from 1st professional year to final year, interns at Rangaraya medical college, Kakinada. Considering prevalence of 58.3% from previous study, allowable error 10%, sample size is calculated by using 4PQ/L2 as 287. Out of 1450 medical students, 287 were selected using Probability Proportionate to size sampling and 40, 50, 50, 48, 50, 49 from 2018-2023 batches using Simple Random Sampling. Students who gave written consent were included; non-drivers were excluded. Pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire was prepared and google form was shared to the study participants. A pilot study was done among 30 students. The study was approved by Institutional Ethics Committee. Data was analyzed using SPSS software Version 21. After baseline study, intervention will be done using a video assisted awareness program. Post-intervention results will be presented at the conference. Results: Among the participants, males and females were 46.5%, 53.5% respectively. Majority of them (77.7%) drive a two-wheeler. 70.3% have poor knowledge regarding airbag deployment during a crash, poor knowledge about vehicle maintenance (70.7%). About 77.7% do not use helmet, 44.9% do not use seat belt, 45.3% had distracted driving. Conclusion: The knowledge of participants was found to be fair and the practices were found to be poor.
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IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, UL, UM, UPUK, VSZLJ
The main goal of this paper is to construct three sets of road safety performance indicators, which are regional road safety performance indicators, urban road safety performance indicators and ...highway safety performance indicators, respectively. Fuzzy Delphi Method and Grey Delphi Method are applied to quantify experts’ attitudes to regional road safety, urban road safety and highway safety. Comparing the results of two methods, the different results of two methods are analyzed, and then the final safety performance indicators are obtained by taking the intersection of results of two methods. Finally, three sets of performance indicators are constructed, which can be described and evaluated the safety level of region, urban road and highway, respectively. The research findings show that the method used in this paper is feasible and practical and can be provided as a reference for the administrative authority of road safety.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
The spread of the new coronavirus COVID-19, has led to unparalleled global measures such as lockdown and suspension of all retail, recreation and religious activities during the first months of 2020. ...Nevertheless, no scientific evidence has been reported so far with regards to the impact on road safety and driving behavior. This paper investigates the effect of COVID-19 on driving behavior and safety indicators captured through a specially developed smartphone application and transmitted to a back-end platform. These indicators are reflected with the spread of COVID-19 and the respective governmental countermeasures in two countries, namely Greece and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), which had the most completed routes for users of the smartphone applications. It was shown that reduced traffic volumes due to lockdown, led to a slight increase in speeds by 6–11%, but more importantly to more frequent harsh acceleration and harsh braking events (up to 12% increase) as well mobile phone use (up to 42% increase) during March and April 2020, which were the months where COVID-19 spread was at its peak. On the bright side, accidents in Greece were reduced by 41% during the first month of COVID-19-induced measures and driving in the early morning hours (00:00–05:00) which are considered dangerous dropped by up to 81%. Policymakers should concentrate on establishing new speed limits and ensure larger spaces for cycling and pedestrians in order to enlarge distances between users in order to safeguard both an enhanced level of road safety and the prevention of COVID-19 spread.
•The effect on driving behavior and road safety due to COVID-19 is assessed.•Data prior and during the first two months of the pandemic are analyzed.•COVID-19 led to an increase in speeds, harsh events and use of mobile phone.•Policymakers should establish new speed limits and wider spaces for all users.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Road deaths and injuries highly affect the lives of people worldwide. road injuries and deaths happen due to improper driving, unfit motor vehicles, traffic laws disobeying persons and poor road ...condition. An effort is made here to assess the factors of poor road conditions which can be improved by prioritizing. Multi criteria technique is applied to prioritize the factors. Ann technique is adopted to assess the road condition. The methodology suggested can be used to determine the level of contribution of parameters towards safety hazard. Accordingly, appropriate mitigation measures may be adopted. A further detailed study needs to be conducted on a large scale by carrying out sensitivity analysis to test the stability of the ranking obtained by the suggested methods.
Road traffic injuries (RTIs) pose a significant health burden with 1.35 million individuals dying on the world's roads annually. Nearly a decade ago, based on agreed road safety indicators, global ...commitments were encouraged to dramatically reduce this burden as part of the United Nation's Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020.
The analysis was based on global level data from three Global Status Reports on Road Safety published by the World Health Organization in 2013, 2015, and 2018. A total of 161 countries that consistently reported statistics for all three reports were included in the analysis. Descriptive analyses, t-test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, and Spearman's rank correlation were performed to evaluate past and current trends in road traffic deaths and countries' progress in achieving key road safety indicators.
We found no significant decline in global road traffic death rates from 2010 to 2016 and in fact, death rates increased in low-income countries (LICs) and the African Region. Death rates were highly dependent on income level of the country, with deaths higher in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) when compared to high-income countries (HICs). We found that the strength of enforcement of speed laws and child restraint laws increased from 2011 to 2017. However, we did not find a correlation between enforcement of the five key prevention policies (speeding, drink-driving, seatbelts, helmets, and child restraints) and death rate. In terms of advancement in achieving key road safety indicators, there was slow progress in adopting most of the recommended policies and practices based on the five pillars (road safety management, safer roads and mobility, safer vehicles, safer road users, and post-crash response).
Despite global efforts during the past decade, road traffic deaths remain disproportionally high in LMICs and African countries as shown by global reports, and progress in achieving global road safety indicators is slow. Countries need to greatly accelerate the implementation of interventions proven to reduce RTIs in order to meet the goals of the second Decade of Action for Road Safety.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
•Small number of key RSPI is an efficient way of monitoring.•An index (RSPIlnn) is calculated using a limited number of indicators.•RSPIlnn is reliable and robust enough to enable earlier ...goal-oriented actions.
The review of the national and international literature dealing with the assessment of the road safety level has shown great efforts of the authors who tried to define the methodology for calculating the composite road safety index on a territory (region, state, etc.). The procedure for obtaining a road safety composite index of an area has been largely harmonized. The question that has not been fully resolved yet concerns the selection of indicators. There is a wide range of road safety indicators used to show a road safety situation on a territory. Road safety performance index (RSPI) obtained on the basis of a larger number of safety performance indicators (SPIs) enable decision makers to more precisely define the earlier goal- oriented actions. However, recording a broader comprehensive set of SPIs helps identify the strengths and weaknesses of a country’s road safety system. Providing high quality national and international databases that would include comparable SPIs seems to be difficult since a larger number of countries dispose of a small number of identical indicators available for use. Therefore, there is a need for calculating a road safety performance index with a limited number of indicators (RSPIlnn) which will provide a comparison of a sufficient quality, of as many countries as possible. The application of the Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) method and correlative analysis has helped to check if the RSPIlnn is likely to be of sufficient quality. A strong correlation between the RSPIlnn and the RSPI has been identified using the proposed methodology. Based on this, the most contributing indicators and methodologies for gradual monitoring of SPIs, have been defined for each country analyzed. The indicator monitoring phases in the analyzed countries have been defined in the following way: Phase 1- the indicators relating to alcohol, speed and protective systems; Phase 2- the indicators relating to roads and Phase 3- the indicators relating to trauma management. This will help achieve the standardization of indicators including data collection procedures and selection of the key list of indicators that need to be monitored. Based on the results, it has been concluded that the use of the most contributing indicators will make it possible to assess the level of road safety on a territory, with an acceptable quality score by focusing on the low-ranked countries. A smaller set of significant indicators defined in this manner can serve for a fast and simple understanding of a road safety situation and assessment of effects of measures undertaken. Also, this universal index approach is applicable in cases when a broader comprehensive set of indicators is analyzed, which provides a more accurate identification of weaker points and rank the countries in a more meaningful way.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
•Traffic operation and safety should be monitored simultaneously using Big Data.•Traffic congestion should be examined in real-time through Big Data.•Multiple methods are applied in real-time safety ...evaluation applying Big Data.•Traffic congestion significantly impact rear-end crash likelihood.•We propose real-time congestion and operation warning strategy for improvement.
The advent of Big Data era has transformed the outlook of numerous fields in science and engineering. The transportation arena also has great expectations of taking the advantage of Big Data enabled by the popularization of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). In this study, the viability of a proactive real-time traffic monitoring strategy evaluating operation and safety simultaneously was explored. The objective is to improve the system performance of urban expressways by reducing congestion and crash risk. In particular, Microwave Vehicle Detection System (MVDS) deployed on an expressway network in Orlando was utilized to achieve the objectives. The system consisting of 275 detectors covers 75 miles of the expressway network, with average spacing less than 1 mile. Comprehensive traffic flow parameters per lane are continuously archived on one-minute interval basis. The scale of the network, dense deployment of detection system, richness of information and continuous collection turn MVDS as the ideal source of Big Data. It was found that congestion on urban expressways was highly localized and time-specific. As expected, the morning and evening peak hours were the most congested time periods. The results of congestion evaluation encouraged real-time safety analysis to unveil the effects of traffic dynamics on crash occurrence. Data mining (random forest) and Bayesian inference techniques were implemented in real-time crash prediction models. The identified effects, both indirect (peak hour, higher volume and lower speed upstream of crash locations) and direct (higher congestion index downstream to crash locations) congestion indicators confirmed the significant impact of congestion on rear-end crash likelihood. As a response, reliability analysis was introduced to determine the appropriate time to trigger safety warnings according to the congestion intensity. Findings of this paper demonstrate the importance to jointly monitor and improve traffic operation and safety. The Big Data generated by the ITS systems is worth further exploration to bring all their full potential for more proactive traffic management.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
Analysis of accident causation does not allow to clearly determine the influence of one specific cause. Traffic accident has been a result of many interacting factors. Most of accident causes ...classification systems have been focused on the errors and actions of the participant that immediately led to the conflict (eg. not giving a way). The actual reasons why the driver failure occurred are not taken into account. The aim of this study has been the analysis of human behavior or condition which can lead to the accident or influenced the accident causation. For the purpose of this study, the most often factors contributing to the traffic accidents occurrence of selected risk groups has been analyzed - eg. young drivers, seniors, risky drivers. For the data analysis, data from the research project Czech In-depth Accident Study (CzIDAS) has been used. The in-depth accident investigation teams document all relevant information on the traffic environment, vehicles, and human factors, at the scene immediately after the occurrence of a traffic accident. The investigation includes an individual interview by a psychologist with traffic accident participants, focused on all relevant information related to causes, actual mental and physical condition of a participant, driving habits and practice, and basic and sociodemographic information about the participant.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
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