Study on community based road safety programmes abuting selected sections of Dhaka-Aricha highway

Abstract

Road transport accidents have now been recognized as a major cause of injury, premature death and disability in Bangladesh like other developing countries in the world. The accident problem on the national highway network in Bangladesh is a serious and growing concern to the community. Of the total reported road traffic accidents, over 60 -------- -. percent occur in rural areas and particularly on national highways, accounting for nearly 37 percent of total reported accident. Most of the reported accidents on the highways are of fatal type, accounting for about 73 percent of the total highway accidents. Pedestrians and local people of communities the adjacent to the highway are seriously affected by recurring road accidents. Problem characteristics dictate urgent need for implementing a range of intervention strategies focusing good practices and approaches. Substantial opportunities and scope exist for creating a safer road environment through sustained introduction of safe community programmes at the local levels by promoting wider public participation and awareness as well as making necessary changes in road use behavior and the environment. This study investigated the accident data reported by police and further data were collected from the relevant thana. These data were analyzed according to problem types, locations and community characteristics in order to develop community based road safety programmes to reduce the road accidents and injuries abutting selected section (11.9 km - 82.7 km) of the Dhaka-Aricha Highway. Questionnaire survey of the community people and physical observations of roadway environment and traffic conditions were also conducted for this study. There were 237 reported accidents on the Dhaka-Aricha Highway- a section of 70.8 km during the last four years (2000-2003). Of these accidents 65 percent were fatal, 28 percent injury and 17 percent other simple accidents. But there were variations in types of accident severity at individual locations. Of the total reported accidents at individual locations, 80 percent and 75 percent fatal accident occurred at Joypura and Savar bazar respectively among the six study locations along the study highway section. Pedestrians accounted for almost 45 percent of road accident fatalities, 30 percent of injuries and are involved in about 44 percent of all reported accidents. From questionnaire survey it was found that, most prevalent accidents were associated with pedestrians while crossing the highway. At Joypura, there occurred 70 percent "hit pedestrian" type accident occurred which is the highest location of this type accident occurrence among the six study locations. The peak times of accidents occurrence were during II :00 a.m. -12:00 noon and 3:00 p.m.-4:30 p.m. About 24 percent of the total pedestrian fatalities were in the age group of 21-30 years, 15 percent in the age group 31-35 years and persons under 16 years were involved in 17 percent of pedestrian fatalities. Heavy vehicles viz. trucks and buses, major contributors to road accident fatalities-accounting for 70 percent are JJarticularly responsible for pedestrian fatalities. The maximum number of bus involved accidents took place at Savar Bazar (56 percent) and at Manikganj Bus Stand (46 percent). Truck involved accident is almost 30 percent at all study locations except Savar Bazar (II percent). Maximum accident occurrence day is the weekly market day at the study locations or adjacent areas. In the built up areas of the study sections considerable pedestrian movements, both along and across the highway, were observed. Road environmental defects and roadside hazards, indiscriminate uses of road and vehicles particularly dangerous overtaking and reckless driving, absence of designated bus stops for passengers, loading-unloading facilities, unregulated and haphazard parking, indiscriminate and high concentration of local non-motorized vehicles like, rickshaws, rickshaw-vans etc. are among the most contributory factors of accidents on the highway. Lack of adequate road sense of road users and proper enforcement and sanctions of traffic laws also aggravate the situation. The community survey revealed that strong support from community people can be obtained for the introduction of safe community programmes towards improving road safety. This research work is conducted to develop the procedure to introduce sustainable Safe Community programmes at local level through encouraging community participation, promotional awareness build-up and necessary changes in behavior. Besides the existing local setup i.e. Road Safety Cell (RSC), additional members of the existing Community Road Safety Committee at local level have been suggested for successful implementation of the programmes. This researcp examines in particular and in detail the systematic implementation of the community based road safety programmes in the study sections and recommends the package programmes for individual locations such as training for community road safety committee, policy-maker, professionals and teachers, raise awareness, drivers road safety training, roadside publicity and campaigns, deployment of traffic warden and student traffic cadet, school education and non-formal education, post-accident management, systematic recording of accident data, continuous monitoring, fitness checking of the vehicle etc. Finally, recommendations for implementation and future research like baseline research to evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes, comparative study before and after study have been suggested.