Characteristics of traffic incidents

CHARACTERISTICS OF TRAFFIC INCIDENTS

• Accidents occur not only due to ignorance but also due to carelessness, thoughtlessness and over confidence
• Human, vehicular and environmental factors play role before, during and after a road traffic accidents (RTA)
• Road traffic injuries are partially predictable and hence preventable
• Strict traffic laws and penalties have to be imposed to curb this growing menace.
• The main causes of accidents to speeding, driver negligence and violation of traffic regulations. Majority of these accidents occur in urban areas and sometimes, the casualties involve pedestrians
• The high rate of population growth, 
• large percentage of young drivers
• dramatic and uncontrolled increase in the number of vehicles over recent years coupled with
  
• absence of strict law enforcement and
• poor road conditions have all contributed to the high accident rates. 

• Primarily, drivers have been the main cause of accidents in terms of negligence, high speed and poor driving
• Poor driving reflects carelessly changing lanes or making turns without signaling
• Negligence includes eating, talking to a rider or on phone or playing with radio, etc while driving
• However, vehicle age, mechanical defects, tyre failures do have impact on safety. 
• High speeds and pedestrians remain to be the main contributors to road traffic accidents
• Some of the typical characteristics of road traffic accidents are listed
• Age of the driver
• Gender of the driver
• Driver history
• Time of occurrence of accident
• Condition of vehicle
• Condition of the road
• Weather conditions
• Visibility / lighting
• Type of vehicles involved in the accident
• Speed of the vehicle
• Consumption of alcohol and drugs
• Educational level plays an important characteristic in road traffic accidents in that with increasing educational level a driver becomes attached to safer driving techniques