Abstract:
Road traffic crashes are causing great concern to the community. It is found that
road fatalities are increasing steadily and the safety problem is very severe by
international standards, but local initiatives to improve the situation are very
sparse. A detailed study of traffic crashes in Chittagong metropolitan area for
two and a half years (January 1993 to June 1995) has been made. The purpose of
the study was to investigate and analyse the accident factors and high accident
locations, and to recommend some possible low cost engineering treatments to
minimise crashes and their resulting casualities. There were 522 police reported
crashes, which were distributed as 271 (52%) at intersections and 246 (48%) on
mid blocks (links). From the analysis, 12 intersections and 10 mid-blocks were
identified as hazardous locations with high number of crashes in the metropolis.
About 53 percent of total intersection accidents occured at only 20 percent of
total intersections with three or more accidents and about 58 percent of total
midblock accidents occured at only 26 percent midblocks with three or more
accidents. Trucks are the most predominant type of vehicles in each police
station and one- third of total vehicles involved in accidents are trucks in the
entire metropolitan area. Accident type analysis was carried out by using the
"Definition for Classifying Accident" (DCA) codes. Pedestrian accidents and rear
-end collisions were the most frequent types of accidents, 43 percent and 22
percent respectively. About 76 percent of total accidents were attributed to three
dominant accident types viz. pedestrian accidents, rear-end collisions and headon
collisions. Approximately one third of total accidents occurred on the two
main arterial sections: from Bahaddar Hat to Custom (30% in 12 km road
length) and New market to Kadamtali (3% in 2 km road length). These sections
are charactarised as divided carriageways with signalization at intersections and
heavy traffic flow. Accidents peaked in the periods 9 A. M. to 11 A. M.
(approximately 15%) in the morning and 2 P. M. to 3 P. M. (approximately 7.5%)
in the afternoon. After detailed analysis of crash characteristics, remedial
treatments for intersections and mid-blocks were suggested for safety
improvements. Elements of safety measures included such as Pedestrian crossing
facilities (zebra crossings, pedestrian refuges, raised platform of pedestrian
crossing), Speed reduction devices (road humps, rumble strips), Segregation of
slow and fast moving vehicles (lane markings), Median barrier etc. These
measures have considerable proven safety benefits and are important for urban
areas in Bangladesh particularly in the Chittagong metropolitan area.
