ANALYSIS OF ACCIDENTS ON HILLY STRETCHES OF NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

Abstract

The increasing number of road accident on National Highways, which constitute about 2% of the total road network accounts for 113rd of the total fatalities. The road accidents gives losses to the society and individual suffer in terms of pain, human loss disability and mental agony. In hilly regions the road accident scenario is further depressing due to various obvious reasons. Some of the reasons for accidents in hills are narrow roads, steep slope/gradient, hairpin bends, narrow and sharp curves, presence of valley/ river at one side of the road, poor visibility in winter, monsoon, landslides, widthltype of shoulder, pavement surface, maintenance standard etc. It is always important to examine the influence of the road, the vehicle and the road user and their interaction which results in accidents. In hilly roads the same factor are responsible for accident so it is important to study them and to analyze how they interact. This interaction is always present, even when one factor appears to be pre- dominant. The various measures ensuring road safety are to be studied at least to minimize if not possible to avoid the accident completely and reduce the severity of accidents. Comprehensive review of literature was carried out for the factors and interaction of these, responsible for accidents which are directly related to hill roads or can be useful in the study of accident on hill roads. Section of National Highway No 58 from Rishikesh to Kirtinagar falls in a hilly region was selected for study. The highway runs along left bank of the River Ganga upto Kirtinagar. The highway also connects important religious and adventure spot of the state. The tourism is a major source of income of the people of this area. The accidents on the road attract more attention because of tourists visiting from all over the part of country and abroad. Accident analysis is carried for the accidents occurred during the period of last three years and relationship between number of accidents and other parameters such as pavement width, left shoulder width, right shoulder width, radius of horizontal curve and gradient are carried out. Regression analysis was done between number of accidents and other parameters affecting number of accidents. Modeling of accidents was also done using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) technique. 1 It was found out that number of accidents occurred on Saturday and in month of May. Car was the common vehicle that involved in many accidents. Local drivers were mostly involved ff 4- in accidents. Maximum number of accidents were of crash types and drivers fault was the - common cause. When number of accidents correlated with geometric parameters. It can be • concluded that radius of horizontal curve, right shoulder width and gradient affected the number of accident most. AS radius of horizontal curve and right shoulder width reduced number of accident increased and when gradient increases number of accident increased. Regression analysis showed that radius of horizontal curve and gradient are well correlated with number of accidents. ANN modeling gave quite high value of root mean square error. So number of accidents could not be precisely predicted.