1.0
INTRODUCTION
Nowadays, there are a lot of accidents happen on the
road. The road accidents usually occur towards trailer and lorry user, bus
user, car user, motorcycle user, bicycle user, and pedestrian. The highest rate
of the road accidents over the world are among car user especially in festive
season. During festive season, a lot of people travel using road and the
traffic become busy, that lead to road accidents.
Based on the statistics, almost 1.2
million people die because of the road accidents per year over the world (Kofi
Annan, 2004). According to Deputy Health Minister of Iran, Mohammed (2004), the
highest rate of road accidents is occur in Iran, which lead to 38,000 deaths and injuries over the year in 2004. During 2007 road accidents in Israel were responsible for
398 deaths and 32,805 injuries (NRSA, 2008). According to
Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (2009), there is 341,242
number of accidents during 2006. In
2010, India has the highest number of road accidents which lead to 130,000
deaths annually (World Health Organization, 2010).
There are several factors that lead to
road accidents over the world. The most common causes to accidents over the
world are failure of vehicle’s equipment, road layouts and driver’s behaviour.
2.0
FAILURE
OF VEHICLE’S EQUIPMENT
Failure of the vehicle’s
equipment contributes to the accidents (Joseph, 2010). The vehicle’s equipment
include brakes, steering, tires, lamp, axle and others. Manufacturers are required by the country’s law to design and produce cars
that meet a minimum safety standard. Vance (2008) states that computers,
combined with companies' extensive research and development, have produced safe
vehicles that are easy and safe to drive. The most cited types of equipment
failure are brakes cannot function well, improper balanced tires and steering
and suspension failure.
According to Oxford Advanced Leaner’s Dictionary
(1987), brakes is defined as device of reducing the speed or stopping a car,
bicycle, train and other vehicles. Failure to keep the brakes in the good
adjustment can cause accidents. There are several types of brakes such as
modern dual-circuit brake and drum braking. Modern dual-circuit brake systems means
there is two side of circiut (Mika and Nassim, 2010). If one side of the
circuit fails, the other side is usually insufficient to stop a vehicle and can
lead to accidents. Joseph (2010) states that drum braking systems can fade when
hot. This situation make the brakes cannot function well when the driver want
to slow down the speed or stop the car.
The other factor include in failure of vehicle’s
equipment is improper balanced tires. Based on Yokohama Company (2003), a balanced tire is one where mass of the tire when
mounted on its wheel and the car’s axle is uniformly distributed around the
axle. Improper balanced tyre can lead to vibration and noise (Reynolds, 2011).
When there is vibration and noise because of improper balanced tires, it can
reduce the concentration of the driver and may lead to accidents. The vibration
also can make the vehicle not move straightly and become crooked. The driver
cannot control the vehicle and can cause accidents.
Steering and suspension failure
also lead to accidents. According to Autohauz (2009), suspension keeps the tires in contact with the roadway in a stable and
predictable manner. The steering enables drivers to go around road obstacles
and avoid potential accidents. When steering and suspension failure, the
drivers cannot control the tyre based on the direction that they want to go.
For example, the driver want to turn to right, but the steering and suspension
failure make he cannot turn the steering to right to make the vehicle turn to
the right. This is example that lead to accidents. For example, in New Straits
Times (2011), report that 4 teacher killed in the car accidents because of
steering failure.
3.0 ROAD LAYOUTS.
Accidents also can cause by road designs. The
road designs include the road surface, roadway identification signs, and
designs of road layouts. Road surface means the
durable surface material paste on an area intended to accommodate vehicles,
such as a road or walkway (Kulsea, 1980).
The road suface may be smooth or there are several holes on the surface. The
holes can cause accidents especially large and deep hole. The driver will avoid
the hole and may loss control.
No
detailed roadway identification signs also factor that cause accidents over the
world. Roadway identification signs are used to enable
someone without a detailed map to travel from one place to another. The signs
give advance notice of intersections, destinations, hazards, route numbers,
mileage estimates, street names, and points of interest (Vance, 2008). When there is no detailed of the signs, the drivers may
become confused when they are driving. The drivers not ready with the roadway
design when there is no signs. For example, because there is no ‘one-way’ sign,
the driver just go to the street and may cause accident by clash with other
car.
The
other factor include in road layouts is improper design of road layouts. The
authority that need to design the layout nok design it properly. Many
roads have well-known blind spots, where drivers coming from one side cannot
see vehicles coming from the other direction (Joseph, 2010). This can make accidents because the both
vehicles will crash. Also, roads become
slippery during rain and others. This can cause accidents when the weather is
raining.
4.0
DRIVER’S
BEHAVIOR.
Some accidents are caused purely due to
the driver's behavior. Driver’s behavior is the driver’s own mistake. The
accidents occur because of him, not the other factor. The driver may have
substance abuse during driving, feel sleepy and speeding because of no patient.
Substance abuse is a major problem when it comes to road accidents. Both legal
and illegal consumption of substances are causes of accident (Joseph, 2010). It
includes consumption of alcohol, drugs, medicine and others to the extent that
it impairs driver ability and reflexes. The main problem with drunk driving is
the reflexes (Rossman, 2009). It can take the brain more than twice the amount
of time to send messages to the limbs and so simple things like turning corners
become problematic. That’s how the accidents happen.
The second
factor include in driver’s behavior is feel sleepy. Drivers who are driving on
a long distance trip tend to fall asleep when driving (Goh, 2009). Drivers who
are crash their vehicles when falling asleep account for more than 100,000 car
accidents per year in United States (National Traffic Safety Administration). When
the drivers feel sleepy, they cannot concentrate on their driving. To avoid
accidents due to this cause, drivers should plan several short stops during the
long trip.
Speeding and
have no patients is one of the factor include in driver’s behavior. Causes of
accident due to speeding may be rash driving, as in the case of joyriding
youngsters, or just plain careless driving (Joseph, 2010). For example,
exceeding the speed limit in bad weather conditions. Traffic engineers and
local governments have determined the maximum speeds suitable for safe travel
on the nation's roadways. Speeding is a purposeful and calculated behavior
where the driver knows the risk but ignores the danger. By speeding, the
drivers cannot control the if there is any emergency in front of them
(Reynolds, 2011). For example, in BERNAMA (2011), states that 2 siblings died
because they speeding during driving and try to avoid from other car in front
of them.
5.0
CONCLUSION
Accidents
always happen anywhere and anytime nowadays. The road consumers should alert of
the equipment failure, roadway design and driver’s behavior to prevent the
accidents. The rate of the death because of accidents is very high in every country
over the world. By alert of the factor that can contribute to accidents over
the world, the rate of the accidents can be reduce.
For failure of
vehicle’s equipment, the driver or owner of the vehicle should always check and
do service on their vehicle to make sure all equipment in the good condition. To
prevent accidents for the road designs, the goverment responsible for the. The
authority and government should do proper research and design good roadway
layout. For the driver’s behaviour, the drivers should alert on their mistake
and not make something that illegal such consume several substance during
driving.
REFERENCES
Joseph, D. (2010). Most common
causes of accidents. Motorist magazine,.
5, 6-7.
Kulsea, B. (1980). Making Michigan
Move: A History of Michigan Highways and the Michigan Department of
Transportation. Lansing, Michigan: Michigan Department of Transportation.
Lilah Yassin. (2011, March 31). 414,421 Road
Accidents In 2010.
News Straits Times, p. 8.
Mika, M., & Nassim, A. (2010). Causes of road accidents as perceived by Arabs in Israel:
A qualitative study. Transportation
Research, 13, 377-387.
Murali, K. (2010, April 10).
India has the highest number of road accidents in the world. Deutsche Welle.
Retrieved from http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5519345,00.html
Oxford Advance Leaner’s Dictionary. (4th ed).
(1989). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Yokohama. (2003, January). Tire
balance, vehicle ride and vibration. Technical
Services Bulletin, 1-3.
Zulkifli Hashim. (2011, March 12). 4
trainee teachers killed in car crash.
News Straits Times, p. 9.
