Essay on Road Accidents: Causes and Remedies to Reduce Road Accidents
Essay on Road Accidents: Causes and Preventive Remedies! Also learn about: 1. Causes of Road Accidents, 2. Accident Studies 3. Preventive Measures and Remedies to Reduce Accident Rates in India.
Road accidents, as the name itself suggests, are random events that are caused by the interplay of diverse factors relating to the road and its condition, the road users, the vehicles, and environmental conditions. Invariably, a combination of two or more of these factors may lead to accidents.
An undesirable feature of highway transport is the occurrence of accidents and consequent loss of lives and property. The spectacular increase of vehicles on the road has been causing a steady growth accident rates on highways. India has a poor record of road safety with a large number of accidents as well as fatalities.
This has become a major social problem and deserves special attention from the highway and traffic engineers. Based on a scientific analysis of the causes of accidents, the traffic engineer has to devise ways to reduce them through better design, construction, and maintenance of highways, and through better traffic operation and regulation.
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Heavy economic losses and human misery caused by accidents indicate the need for systematic accident studies. The data obtained from an analysis of accidents helps the engineer to evolve improvement schemes and regulatory measures to enhance road safety and decrease accidents.
Essay on the Causes of Road Accidents:
Road accidents, as the name itself suggests, are random events that are caused by the interplay of diverse factors relating to the road and its condition, the road users, the vehicles, and environmental conditions. Invariably, a combination of two or more of these factors may lead to accidents.
The following is a brief summary of the causes of accidents on roads:
1. Road and Road Conditions:
Faulty geometric design components like sight distance, shoulders, super-elevation, transitions and inadequate traffic control devices cause accidents, as do slippery road conditions with inadequate friction leading to skidding and pot holes, ruts and damaged conditions of the surface.
2. Road Users:
The drivers of vehicles can cause accidents through rash driving and excessive speed, violation of traffic rules, traffic signs and signals, through fatigue due to excessive continuous driving, alcoholism and drunken driving. In addition, bus passengers can cause accidents while getting into and alighting from moving vehicles, and distracting the driver’s attention. Pedestrians using the carriageway and violating regulations can also cause accidents.
3. Vehicles:
Mechanical defects of vehicles like failure of brakes, tyre burst, and steering system invariably lead to traffic accidents.
4. Weather:
Unfavourable weather conditions such as fog, heavy rainfall, dust and smoke render driving unsafe, leading to accidents.
5. Miscellaneous:
Stray animals, unmanned level crossings, advertisement boards and hoardings affecting visibility and distracting the drivers’ attention and a host of other such things may also cause road accidents.
Accident Records:
The importance of collecting and recording accurate and comprehensive information relating to road accidents cannot be over-emphasised. Such records help to identify the causes of road accidents and evolve methods of overcoming the deficiencies observed; statistical techniques may also be used in the analysis of accident data.
The IRC have prescribed standard accident reporting forms – Form A-1-for collecting the details of an accident and Form 4 for summary of road accidents in a state during the year.
The particulars in Form A-l are in the following heads:
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