STUDY OF ROAD ACCIDENTS IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION

Road accidents are one of the causes of disability, injury

and death.

India has the highest road traffic accident rate worldwide

with over 140000 deaths annually, beating even China. Every hour nearly 14 lives are lost due to road accidents.

Most accidents occur during peak hours considered an Thus traffic engineers have to undertake a big

unsafe or dangerous time due to complex flow pattern of vehicular traffic.

responsibility of providing safe traffic movements to the road users and ensure their safety. traffic engineering and management the accident rate can

Road accidents cannot be totally prevented but by suitable

Studies on road accidents in India

COMMON CAUSES OF ROAD ACCIDENTS

SPEEDING CARELESS

DRIVING DRIVING

DRINKING SEAT

BELT WEARING OF CONTROL

INEXPERIENCE LOSS

FAILED
AT

TO LOOK PROPERLY

WORK

 PATHETIC

CONDITION OF ROADS

Defects in the quality of materials used. Defects in construction methods and quality control during construction.

Does not follow the correct geometric standards.

Inadequate surface or subsurface drainage in the locality resulting in the stagnation of water in the sub grade or in any of the pavement layers.

Increase in the magnitude of wheel loads and the number of load repetitions due to increase in traffic volume. Settlement of foundation of embankment of the fill material itself.

Environmental factors including heavy rainfall, soil erosion, high water table, snow fall ,frost action ,etc..

STEPS TO BE TAKEN FOR PREVENTING ROAD ACCIDENTS.

Strict enforcement of speed limits.

One way traffic should be implemented.

Roads should be widened wherever required. Curvatures should be minimized. Footpaths and medians should be made mandatory for all important roads.

Zebra crossing should be provided.

Provide signals, road markings, sign posts..

Construction of humps in important places,

PAVEMENT SAFETY FACTORS

SURFACE

TEXTURE ROUGHNESS AND SURFACE SHOULDER DESIGN

PAVEMENT

DISTRESS

PAVEMENT

RUMBLE
PASSING TIME

STRIPS
LANES ROAD SAFETY

OF DAY AND WEATHER CONDITON

INCORPORATING

IMPROVEMENTS

SURFACE TEXTURE
Road

surfaces must ensure an adequate level of friction at the tyre pavement interfaces to provide safe operation of vehicles. surface properties

Pavement

Micro texture tyre pavement contact, skid resistance

Macro texture drainage ability

PAVEMENT ROUGHNESS AND SURFACE DISTRESS

potholes, bumps or ruts. Driving on roads in good condition, higher accident may occur due to high speed, lower skid resistance and some other safety factors. Single and multiple vehicle accident rates. To decrease single vehicle road accidents by

Multiple road accidents on rougher roads contain two factors

Lateral variation in vehicle path

Road defects

PAVEMENT SHOULDER DESIGN

Shoulder performs variety of functions
o o o o o

Lateral support Provides area Provide easy driving Safety zone for parking Improve sight distance

Shoulder reduces accident rates for various lane

 Median

shoulder width increases, accidents increases

Main

functions of traffic engineering studies is to improve safety by

Minimizing shoulder drop-off Increase driver comfort Reduce property damage

RUMBLE STRIPS

Effective low cost method of providing guidance for drivers.

Mainly helpful at the time of winter storms, which reduces the visibility of pavement marking. Installed wherever the shoulder width is 2m or more.
On shoulders adjacent to climbing lanes, rumble strips may be installed on 1.5m shoulder also.

PASSING LANES

Road system must have a wide paved lanes. It helps in reducing problems during overtaking and to avoid queues of vehicles on the road. It also provide adequate gap in the opposing traffic nor absence of solid barrier lines.

TIME OF DAY AND WEATHER CONDITION

These

are highly related to road accident rates.

About

68% of accidents occur during daylight hours while 27% occur during the hours of darkness and the remaining 5% occur during low light conditions.

High

accident areas can be targeted with innovative signing or reflectivity to ensure drivers are aware of their environment.

INCORPORATING ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Pavement

engineering properties associated with road safety, there are various treatments available skid resistance can be restored by a list of specific treatments such as.. surface milling, grooving, blasting, chip sealing, microsurfacing, slurry seal, planning, bush hammering, etc..

 Also

based on pavement roughness, surface condition evaluation, pavement performance experience, surface visibility and paving materials, etc..

CLASSES OF FACTORS & INDICATORS

MAINTENANCE TREATMENT & ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

ENGINEERING APPLICATIONS IN THE FIELD OF TRANSPORTATION

Road safety is an integral part of engineering design. IRC formulates codes for road construction ,maintenance and also for road safety. National highways used to be built through PWDs, which connects the entire states of nation.

MAJOR CHALLENGES PRETAINING TO ENGINEERING MEASURES..

Accessibility

rather than mobility

Economic

growth and development of funds for non-NHDP networks

Deficiency

Available

funds for maintenance & repair is only about 35%-40% of the estimated fund

PRESENT POLICIES REGARDING ENGINEERING MEASURES FOR ROAD SAFETY Short term solutions
Inadequate provision of SSD, signage, shoulder width, delineators, pedestrian railing, crash barriers, edge and lane marking..

Medium term solutions

Improvement of junctions, culvert parapet, lack of visibility at night, safety measures for pedestrians, rest areas, shoulder consolidation..

GEOMETRIC DESIGN CONSIDERATIONS OF ROADS TO PREVENT ACCIDENTS

Basic objectives of geometric design are

Optimize efficiency Safety Minimizing cost

Minimizing environmental damages

Livability

Geometric design can be broken into 3 parts

Alignment Profile

ALIGNMENT- route of the road, defined as a series of horizontal tangents and curves PROFILE vertical aspect of the road, including crest, sag curves and the straight grade lines connecting them.

CROSS SECTION position, no of vehicles, bicycle lanes and side walks ,along with their cross slope or banking, drainage features,

DESIGN STANDARDS
Design

guidelines taken into account by

Speed Vehicle type Road grade (slope) View obstructions Stopping distance

AASHTO

published primary US guidance on A Policy on Geometric Design of Highway and Streets and other standards includes

PROFILE

Consist of road slopes(grades) connected by parabolic vertical curves

Sag curves tangent slopes at the end of the curve that is higher than the beginning of the curve Crest vertical curves tangent slope at the end of the curve lower than the beginning of the curve
Drainage poor in sag curves and flat roads

SAG CURVES

Concave upwards Head light sight distance (S)important design criteria

S is determined by angle of head light & angle of tangent slopes at the end of the curve Headlights are 2 ft above the ground and the

CREST CURVES

Convex upwards Stopping sight distance is the important design criteria, it is determined by the speed of traffic
Sight Distance > Curve Length (S>L)

Sight Distance < Curve Length (S<L)

US standards specify that, the height of drivers eye is up to 1080mm from the pavement and height of object the driver needs to see as 600mm
Cyclists eye height is at 4.5 ft from the pavement

GEOMETRY

CROSS SLOPE

Includes horizontal or lateral slopes

Leveled road creates problem of drainage

In tangent sections,1 2% C S is provided

NORMAL CROWN is provided SUPER ELEVATION for curved sections Lower cross slope increases, risk of loss of control increases 8% super elevation is provided for sharp curves Radius of curve is given by

SAFETY EFFECTS OF CROSS SECTION

Cross slopes and lane width affects the safety performance of a road
lane departure crashes are mostly on narrow lane roads

SIGHT DISTANCE

Length of road way ahead visible to the driver It is the distance travelled during two phases

Perception Maneuver

reaction time time (Brake reaction time)

Depending upon the situations,3 types of sight distance are used

Stopping Decision

sight distance sight distance

Stopping sight distance- distance travelled during PRT & MT and affected by road conditions, mass of the vehicle, inclination of the road and some other factors
Decision sight distance- used when drivers must make decisions more complex than stop or dont stop, roads are designed for DSD ,using 6 to 10sec for PRT & 4 to 5sec for MT Intersection sight distance distance needed to safely proceed through an intersection ,it

CONCLUSION

Safety means first aid to the uninjured Health of the nation is more important than the wealth of the nation Road safety is a major public health concern

Strict implementation of road safety measures reduces the ROAD ACCIDENTS

REFERENCES

Journal Articles:

DR. (Mrs.) Nishi Mittal & DR. S.M.Sarin, characteristics of road accidents in India,

Indian Highways,October 2001

A. Anne Rosaline, B. Sathya Narayanan & S. Shanmuga Sundara Boopathy,comparison of accident rate using accident ranking, Indian

Thank you