A Pilot Study at National Highway-8 for On-Site Crash Data Collection and In-Depth Investigation in India 2017-26-0001

The importance of on-site, in-depth accident research studies has been recognized internationally especially in developed countries. In order to address problems related to road safety, it is important to understand the epidemiology and causation of crashes. For this an in-depth investigation of the crash site, vehicles involved and injury details is required. Detailed crash information helps in analysing the events leading to crash and developing safety measures and/or intervention to reduce crashes. In order to pilot such an activity in India, an in-depth accident data collection activity had been carried out on national highway connecting Delhi to Jaipur (NH-8) for a duration of over a year by a joint team of IIT-Delhi and NATRiP.

A total of 1220 road traffic accidents (RTA) notifications were received by the team, of which 186 cases were attended and detailed data was collected in a pre-decided format. The crash data has been statistically analysed to determine the type of vehicles involved, contributory factors, collision type, type and level of injuries (injury categorized on the basis of severity).

Statistical analysis shows that heavy trucks (40 %) and passenger cars (20.7 %) account for majority of vehicles involved in RTAs followed by 2-wheelers (7.9%), trailer trucks (7.4%), bus (5.5%), and light trucks (5.3%). Other than that some tractors, 3-wheelers, road or construction work vehicles, bi-cycle, moped, rickshaw are involved in lesser numbers in RTAs. Most of the collision type reported were rear end/tail-gating (47%), followed by 11.5% of “roll-over/over-turn”, angle collision and collision with object reported to be 11% and 3 %, respectively. It was also observed that 9 % of the crashes had fatalities and that most number of fatalities (77%), grievous injuries (41%) and minor injuries (46%) occurred where trucks are involved. Statistical analysis of the data collected and a case study is presented to show importance of analysis of the in-depth data collected from crash site and other sources.