The Hindu : Analysing road accidents

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Feb 21, 2004

Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Analysing road accidents

A new system has been designed by the police to map accident-prone spots and study the reasons for an accident, reports G. Anand.

The police are all set to replace the old system of reporting accidents, with a newly-designed `Road Accident Report' form soon to be issued to traffic policemen preparing reports of accident scenes.

A senior police official points out that policemen give little importance to weather, light and road conditions while preparing First Information Reports (FIRs) in accident cases. "These factors are crucial in reconstructing accidents and identifying what are called `black' or accident-prone spots," he says.

In Thiruvananthapuram district alone, 4,898 accidents were reported last year. As many as 315 persons were killed and 3,548 grievously hurt in the accidents. In all, 1,968 persons sustained minor injuries.

The current system of collecting accident data has impeded the efforts of the police to `risk map' accident-prone road-segments, it is pointed out. The new system has been devised to evaluate in detail all `causative and contributory' factors resulting in road accidents.

The data entered in the `Road Accident Report' form by traffic policemen would be fed into computers for analysis. The Public Works Department (PWD) would plot the accident information into a digital map of the State to identify accident-prone road segments and take remedial measures along with police and civic authorities.

At present, traffic investigation is focussed on determining whether it is human error, rash driving or negligence that causes an accident. Traffic policemen rely heavily on eyewitness accounts, tyre marks and relative positions of vehicles to prepare reports of accident scenes. The accident information collected by the police rarely reflects the road environment. The report of the Motor Vehicle Inspector pertains only to the mechanical aspects of the vehicle involved in the accident, an official says.

The accident reporting followed by the police, so far, has been in descriptive form, with little uniformity in recording of data. Hence, the new reporting system follows a prescribed format that is computer-friendly. The format asks for various factors, including weather and road environment in detail.

For instance, the policeman would have to enter whether there was smoke or dust at the time of the accident. Weather conditions including drizzle, heavy rain, mist and flooding of causeways are accounted for. The light conditions, road characters such as curves and characteristics of the carriage-way would have to be entered according to the prescribed format. The format also asks for landmarks near the accident spot such as pedestrian crossing, narrow bridge, petrol pump or school.

The new system facilitates a meticulous analysis of the various factors contributing to an accident, it is pointed out. The collision diagram schematically represents the paths of the vehicles involved in the accident and the position of pedestrians, cyclists or other vehicles at the time of the accident. A uniform system of symbols has been used for making such diagrams that would help reconstruct the accident and analyse it in its entirety.

The accident reporting system also uses diagrams to indicate whether the collision was a sideswipe, brush, skid, rear-end hit or head-on-collision. Once the form is introduced, traffic policemen would be trained to report accidents in the new format, the official adds.

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