Citation

Chaudhary SK. Indian Highw. 2020; 48(1): 15-23.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2020, Indian Roads Congress)

DOI

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PMID

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Abstract

Loss of lives due to Road accident has been a matter of great concern for Disaster professionals, Technocrats and Policy makers. More than 1.35 million people are killed on the road every year and more than 20 million are injured, according to a World Health Organisation recent report. Despite the fact that 10% of the total accidents are single vehicle accidents (typically run-off-road accidents) the rate of these events increase up to 45% when only fatal accidents are considered. Hence Improving road safety has been the key objective for road authorities worldwide in recent years. Lately, many concepts like self-explaining roads, low cost measures or forgiving roads were adopted to reduce the number of fatalities, concepts. As new research findings are published, differing theories evolve and road safety visions change. The way roads are laid out and designed can reduce the exposure to traffic of vulnerable road users, reduce the probability that crash and injury occur when these users are exposed and reduce the severity of injury if it occurs. Substantial and sustainable casualty reductions can be achieved in relatively short time and at relatively short cost by identifying and treating high risk infrastructure sites, creating safer and forgiving roads. The overall aim of this paper is to improve traffic safety by increasing the awareness of road authorities, in order for them to implement road safety measures, to use intelligent, intuitive and cost-efficient combinations of new technologies and traditional infrastructure best practice applications, in order to enhance the forgiving and self- explanatory nature of roads.

Language: en

Keywords

Injury severity; Traffic safety; Highway design; Best practices; Ran off road crashes; Highway departments