ANALYSIS OF ROAD ACCIDENTS AND SUGGESTED SAFETY MEASURES

Abstract

Road safety becomes a complex and multifaceted problem for the simple reason that transportation and development is becoming more intense and complicated than ever before as the population and economic activities grow in their size. Independent studies by both World Health Organization and World Bank have estimated that about 5, 00,000 people lost their lives and over 15million suffer injuries each year as a result of road accidents. In India the number of accidents and the fatalities has been increasing over the years and accidents per 1000 vehicles are high in India compared to other developed countries in the world. The tendency of accidents to cluster or concentrate at few spots is known as „black spots‟ or „accident spots‟. These spots are considered as prime candidates for improvement/remedial works to enhance road safety. Identification of such locations helps to achieve quick and better cost effective solutions to traffic safety problems. Three such accident prone locations on highways radiating from Pulivendula town are selected and traffic surveys are collected at these accidents prone locations .The accident analysis is carried out for the traffic data collected .The analysis revealed that excess speed, absence of caution boards and not proper maintenance of shoulders at the highway sections are prime causative factors for accidents and these accident prone locations need immediate attention of installation of traffic sign boards and speed limit is to be warranted.