Saturday, October 22, 2011

BEL 422: The factors contributing to accidents all over the world



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.

Kofi Annan. (2004, Jun 04). Iran has highest rate of fatal road accidents in the world. Payvant Iran News. Retrieved from http://www.payvand.com/news/04/apr/1034.html

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.

Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Researh. (n.d). Home page. Retrieved from http://www.miros.gov.my/web/guest/national

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.

Reynolds, C. (2010, December 07). Improper Tire Balancing Can Lead To Problems. Hubpages. Retrieved from http://hubpages.com/hub/Improper-Tire-Balancing-Can-Lead-To-Problems

Rossman, E. (2009, April 20). Top causes of car accidents. Hubpages. Retrieved from http://hubpages.com/hub/Texas-Automobile-Accident.

Steward, G. (2009). Major causes of road accidents. Retrieved from http://ezinearticles.com/?Major-Causes-of-Road-Accidents&id=2998012

Vance, J. (2008). What causes car accidents? Retrieved from http://www.smartmotorist.com/traffic-and-safety-guideline/what-causes-car-accidents.html

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.

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