Accident Studies- Causes and Prevention (Highway Engg.)

Hi there,
In the syllabus for Highway Engineering(HPU) , this topic is under the section C of Traffic Studies. I have discussed the parking studies in my previous article and in this post I am going to post about the Causes and Prevention of the accidents.

• Causes

Under the mixed traffic conditions and different types of man-oeuvres avoiding the accidents to 100% is not possible, but by studying the various causes and characteristics of the accidents we can provide some preventive measures or improvements to reduce the rates of the accidents.
In any accident there are four elements which take part in it:

1. Road User
2. Vehicle
3. Road
4. Environment.

Road user may be a driver or a pedestrian. Generally driver becomes the cause of the accidents when he is in drunken state, tired, sleepy or in some temporary state of anger or grief. Pedestrians becomes the cause of accident when they are careless while crossing the roads.
Vehicle may becomes the cause of accident when its dynamic characteristics such as braking, accelerator and steering are not working properly. A sudden tyre burst may also become a cause of accident.
Various Road geometric characteristics such as in-sufficient sight distance, excess gradient, less width and surface characteristics such as less friction or presence of pot holes or another failures may lead to accidents.
Environment factors also play sufficient role in the accidents. Heavy rain fall, presence of fog and very high temperature are some of the factors which may result in the accidents by causing in-convenience to the drivers.

• Prevention:

Prevention of the accidents can be done with the help of 3 E's:

1. Engineering
2. Enforcement
3. Education

By using the various engineering measures to construct the best road for the required traffic performance, it is possible to prevent the accidents to some extent.
Enforcement of the motor vehicle act to each and ever traffic may reduce the accidents. Various traffic laws must be enforced with proper guidelines.
Educating the road users about the traffic laws and the safe practices can play a big role in effective traffic performance. This can be done with the help of various medias such as TV and radio and also traffic safety weeks may be organised to educate the traffic.

This was a brief introduction to the Causes and prevention of the Accidents.
Thanks for your kind visit!