Citation

Haque MO. J. Australas. Coll. Road Saf. 2011; 22(2): 48-56.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2011, Australasian College of Road Safety)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

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Abstract

This paper investigates the pattern of road fatalities in Brunei. Road fatalities reached a peak in 1993 when 79 people died on the roads. Various road safety initiatives were then taken to reduce the road toll; this worked well and reduced road fatalities until 2003, when they began to increase. This implies that there has been a recent change in the pattern of road fatalities in Brunei. This has been verified by testing long-term and short-term regression coefficients. The coefficient of a policy variable, lax enforcement of traffic laws, indicates that road fatalities are increasing due to non- implementation of traffic laws, together with a larger number of young drivers and new vehicle registrations.

In recent years Brunei's road fatality rates have not been significantly different from those in Victoria (Australia), and they are significantly lower than in Malaysia and Singapore. Brunei can thus be considered a model for the trajectory of road safety in South-East Asian countries. There is further scope to reduce road fatalities if Brunei introduces and implements additional effective road safety strategies incorporating the Safe System approach to road safety, together with enforcing the existing road safety measures more strictly.