International Journal of Road Safety

Reversing the Trend of Motorcycle Crashes Towards a Continuous Decline

Wong Shaw Voon — 2022-11-01

Report from the World Health Organization (WHO) shows an alarming figure of 1.35 million deaths annually in the past few years due to road traffic crashes in the world (World Health Organization, 2018). Road traffic injuries is now the leading cause of death for children and young adults 5-29 years of age. Recognizing the importance of the problem, the United Nations General Assembly declared a Second Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 (2nd DOARS) with the target to reduce road deaths and injuries by at least 50% by 2030. It is a continuation of the earlier 10-year period action plan to further accelerate progress towards achieving the goals of United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDGs 2030) for road safety.

Revisiting Automated Speed Enforcement System in Malaysia through Deterrence Framework

Ummi Sabariah Mahamud — 2022-11-01

The significant contribution of speeding (about 58% of road crash victims) to road safety in Malaysia demands continuous and effective countermeasures. While enforcement is effective to combat speeding and modify road users’ behaviours, frequent review and update is necessary to ensure its relevance and effectiveness. This article reviews and documents the process of automated speed enforcement in Malaysia; before proposing an investigation framework of improvement clutching on the long-standing Classical Deterrence Theory (Gibbs, 1979) – perceived certainty of punishment, severity and swiftness of sanctions. Suggestions and steps to improve deterrence effect of automated speed enforcement in Malaysia conclude the discussion.

Exploring Crash Risk Factors Associated with Drivers in Saudi Arabia

Rayan Alhazmi — 2022-11-01

The traffic safety in roads depicts “the procedures implemented and actualized to inhibit drivers and operators from being killed or significantly wounded”. In this study, the random Poisson- parameters regression-model is adopted and implemented in order to realize, measure, test, and compare driving-behaviours throughout three main cities in Saudi Arabia, i.e., Makkah, Dammam and Riyadh. The methodology focuses on optimizing decision-making and insights to influence legislators and key decision-makers to manage the future needs for roads in Saudi Arabia. The random parameters regression has been used to predict the number of crashes that result from external locus of control, driving-behaviour, time, and location within three main cities/regions in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). The study identified that the number of crashes increase among drivers who show aggressive behaviour and decrease among drivers with more violations. Night-time (period from 12:00 am until 6:00 am) has also been shown as a risk factor for car crashes. The study recommends that drivers who were frequently involved in car crashes may complete a driving improvement program so that their aggressive tendencies would be controlled. Also, visible traffic law enforcement at night could help prevent the higher number of crashes occur at that time.

Fatigue Among Heavy Vehicle Drivers on Expressway

Akmalia Shabadin — 2022-11-01

Road crashes involving heavy vehicles on expressways accounted for 17% of the overall road crashes on expressways in 2018. Crash investigations conducted by MIROS in 2015 found that fatigue was among the factors of these crash occurrences involving heavy vehicles. People who drive commercial vehicles such as taxis, buses, or trucks normally do shift work which needed them not to follow the regular and normal sleep pattern. Their nature of work and sleeping patterns may lead to fatigue and sleepiness. Thus, this research was proposed with the aim of determining the prevalence factors of fatigue among heavy vehicle drivers on expressways. Data was collected using the face-to-face interview method with heavy vehicle drivers who travelled along the expressway. Around 400 heavy vehicle drivers from the north, south, and central regions of Malaysia participated in this study. This study found that most heavy vehicle drivers report that they usually begin to feel fatigued after 4 hours and 22 minutes of driving and they are more likely to feel tired in the early hours of the morning, specifically around 2:00 am to 6:00 am. This study concluded that the most frequent reported prevalence factors of fatigue among heavy vehicle drivers are insufficient rest breaks, long driving hours, and heavy expressway traffic. The significant factors reported mostly related to resting issues where it may be due to long-distance journeys or they are trying to squeeze in as many trips as possible for extra income.

The Post-Mortem of Road Safety Audit Stage 5

Muhammad Marizwan Abdul Manan — 2022-11-01

The Road Safety Audit (RSA) stage 5 is a proactive measure taken by the Malaysian Institute of Road Safety Research (MIROS) to improve the level of road safety along existing roads in Malaysia. Since 2008, MIROS has conducted 208 cases of RSA stage 5, and for this study, only 68 of RSA cases were chosen as samples for a desktop study. Apart from desktop analysis, eleven of previous RSA cases were chosen based on a selection criterion to be revisit. The aim of this study is to identify common deficiencies extracted from the RSA Stage 5 reports and assess the successfulness of all the recommendations proposed in the RSA-Stage 5 reports. Based on the analysis conducted from 68 RSA reports, the most common issues reported in the RSA stage 5 reports along expressway are related to access point deficiencies, for non-expressways, visual aid deficiencies issues are generally being observed (27.4%) while for signalized and un-signalized junction, issued related to geometry layout deficiencies are the most common (24.0% - 27.8%). Proper and appropriate visual aid was proven effective to reduce the speeding issue. It was strongly suggested that visual aid be given high priority countermeasure in Malaysia. We see that road authorities are willing to rectify any road deficiencies if budget for road maintenance or upgrading and the cost to conduct RSA Stage 5 are allocated. MIROS or other road safety agencies/bodies need to engage the road authorities strategically and effectively by assisting them on identifying the risky location and planning for road maintenance and upgrading budget before proceeding with the RSA Stage 5 in the future.

A Sustainable Road Safety Investment Plan for Persiaran Saujana Impian

Alvin Poi Wai Hoong — 2022-11-01

Persiaran Saujana Impian portrays a good example of how a road network ‘inherits’ poor design characteristics from poor town planning and particularly poor road safety institutionalization. As a result of increased traffic loading due to rising housing development projects along this 5 km road, the rate of road crashes has been rise over the last five years. Crash data obtained from the Royal Malaysia Police revealed that the most common type of collision involved passenger cars, and more than one-third of the total crashes occurred in dark environment. Crashes involving motorcyclist constituted less than 10% of the total cases and yet they over-represented the number of fatalities. A road network safety assessment showed that more than 50% of the road length was rated as high risk for passenger cars and more than 80% for motorcyclists. Aside from controlling the operating speed, the assessment confirmed that this road network requires improvement in relation to roadside safety and intersection design. Several intervention programmes were identified to have high benefit-to-cost ratio (BCR) and should be included in any road improvement plan to reduce the risk of severe crashes. This paper proposed a holistic road safety improvement plan based on crash evidence, scientific evaluation and strategic implementation framework. This paper also highlights the importance of localizing road safety intervention programmes which places emphasis on empowering local community to champion road safety. The proposed strategic framework can be replicated for use in other parts of the country as long as evidence-based approach is used.

Two-wheeler Intersection Treatment: A Review

Nor Aznirahani Mhd Yunin — 2022-11-01

Two-wheelers, either motorised or non-motorised, are known to be the cheapest mode of transport. The usage of two-wheelers, especially in low- and middle-income countries, help to fill the gaps when public transport systems are non-existence, inefficient, or unintegrated. In the past decade, the two-wheeler population has grown exponentially, mainly due to the rise in transportation cost and congestion issues. However, this has inevitably raised the number of traffic crashes involving two-wheelers. In Malaysia, more than 60% of road traffic crashes recorded involve two-wheelers and the exposure rate for two-wheelers is said to be the highest at signalised intersections. Therefore, this study is initiated to make the intersections safer for two- wheelers. Thus, resulting in a reduction of road traffic crashes involving two-wheelers at intersections. Findings from previous studies conducted on this subject and existing guideline on the provision of two-wheeler facilities as well as intersection treatments for two-wheelers adapted by other countries were analysed within the study. This study reveals that the design of friendly intersection treatment for two-wheelers are site specific as the mix of traffic, right-of-way, property access, traffic volume and operating speed of a road, as well as safety performance and community goals have a big impact on the type of treatment to be implemented. Saying said so, it is suggested that an assessment on how safe, comfortable and adaptable the treatment is required upon implementation. Such assessment will allow room for improvements as well as monitoring of how such treatments achieve the desired goals can be attained.