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 unsafe or dangerous time due

to complex flow pattern of vehicular traffic.

Thus traffic engineers have to undertake a big

responsibility of providing safe traffic

movements to the road users and ensure their
safety.

Studies on road accidents in India

COMMON CAUSES OF ROAD

ACCIDENTS
SPEEDING
CARELESS

DRIVING

DRINKING

DRIVING

SEAT

BELT WEARING

INEXPERIENCE
LOSS

OF CONTROL

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

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.

PAVEMENT SAFETY FACTORS

SURFACE

TEXTURE

PAVEMENT

ROUGHNESS AND SURFACE

DISTRESS
PAVEMENT

SHOULDER DESIGN

RUMBLE

STRIPS

PASSING

LANES

TIME

OF DAY AND WEATHER

CONDITON

INCORPORATING

ROAD SAFETY

SURFACE TEXTURE
Road

surfaces must ensure an

adequate level of friction at the tyre
pavement interfaces to provide safe
operation of vehicles.

Pavement

surface properties

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.

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

Lateral support

Provides area

Provide easy driving

Safety zone for parking

Improve sight distance

Shoulder reduces accident rates for

 Median

shoulder width increases,

accidents increases

Main

functions of traffic engineering

studies is to improve safety by

Minimizing shoulder drop-of

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

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, micro-surfacing, 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

Economic

growth and development

Deficiency

networks

rather than mobility

of funds for non-NHDP

PRESENT POLICIES REGARDING

ENGINEERING MEASURES FOR
ROAD
Short term
solutions
SAFETY
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

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

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

roads

poor in sag curves and flat

SAG CURVES
Concave

upwards

Head

light sight distance (S)

important design criteria

is determined by angle of head light

& angle of tangent slopes at the end
of the curve

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
SUPER

CROWN is provided

ELEVATION for curved

sections
Lower

cross slope increases, risk of

loss of control increases

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

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

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

Thank you