DEVELOPMENT OF ACCIDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM FOR NATIONAL HIGHWAYS

Abstract

Every year nearly 85,000 persons are reportedly killed and more than 3,00,000 are injured on Indian roads. An accident takes place every 1.5 minutes and in every 6.2 minutes a person dies in road accidents. The National Highways though constitute only 2% of the total road network but carry 40% of the traffic and accounts for 25% of road accidents, out of which 34% lead to fatalities and 28% to injuries. Accident Management System (AMS) is defined as a process of developing an accident database, identifying accident prone locations and evolving corrective measures. Study has been carried out on sections of National Highways No. 58, 73 and 72A. Accident data for the selected highway sections have been collected from police stations for the last 10 years (1992-2001). Accident Black Spot is a location, whether link or node, on a highway where accidents repeatedly occur or a large number of accidents occur over a period of time. In this dissertation, Accident Black Spots have been identified considering Accident Rate (AR), Accident Fatality Rate (AFR), Accident Severity Index (ASI) and No. of Accidents per 1,00,000 veh.km of travel as parameters for analysis. Threshold values of these four parameters have been calculated at 95% confidence level. Based on these threshold values, Accident Black Spots have been identified. Subsequently, generalized remedial measures have been evolved based through on site observation.