ACCIDENT STUDIES AND ROAD SAFETY AUDIT

FOR URBAN ROAD NETWORK OF

PATIALA CITY
A Thesis Submitted in Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Award of
the Degree of

MASTERS OF ENGINEERING

IN

INFRASTRUCTURE ENGINEERING
Submitted By
ABHINAV AGGARWAL

801623002
Under
supervision of
Dr. Tanuj Chopra Dr. Geetam Tiwari
Assistant Professor MoUD Chair Professor
Department of Civil Engineering Department of Civil Engineering
Thapar Institute of Eng. & Indian Institute of
Tech.(T.I.E.T) Technology(I.I.T)
Patiala ,Punjab Delhi.

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

6.1 GENERAL

The analysis of accidents has been done to understand the various causes of accidents and their
location and their frequency can be determined so that black spots can be located and later on
Road Safety Audit can be done on that. The accident data is collected for four years of Patiala
region from the various police station whichever the area belongs to. The data was collected
from the year 2013 to 2016.

6.2 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Conclusion and various recommendations have been suggested for accidents and road safety
audit which are summarized below.

6.2.1 Conclusion for Analysis of Accidents

On the basis of accident data collected for the years 2013 to 2016 of Patiala following conclusion
can be drawn: -

In Patiala 29 % of fatal, 26 % grevious and 45 % minor accidents take place out of which
mainly males were the victims. They alone account for 87 % of total accidents.

11 % of fatal accidents take place in the month of June, July and December respectively
followed by 9 % in April and October. Tuesday and Wednesday consisted of 16 % of
accidents respectively followed by 15% on Sunday and Friday. Maximum accidents take
place between 7:00 to 8:00 P.M and 9:00 to 10:00 P.M.

32 % of fatal accidents take place due to a vehicle hitting from the back and 24 % fatal
accidents are of pedestrians followed by 16 % due to vehicle head-on.

38% of fatal accidents were occurred due to cars/van /jeep, 18% due to 2 Axle Heavy Goods
Vehicle, 11% due to bus, 14% was occurring due to unknown vehicles that hit and run away

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 from there. 48 % victims vehicles were those who were using 2-wheeler like Motorcycle
/Scooter /Moped followed by cycles 11 % and 29 % were pedestrians.

Dukhniviran Chowk,Rajpura Road & New Bypass Intersection, Rajpura road & Lakkad
Mandi road intersection and bus stand chowk comes out to be a black spot of Patiala.

6.2.2 Main reasons for accidents in Patiala:

Traffic Issues: city has mixed traffic. Non-segregation of traffic leads to several problems.
proactive approach is
completely missing.

The city has poor record of traffic safety and congestion. City lacks technical inputs

Old city area has several bottlenecks.

No pedestrian facilities in the new areas of Patiala.

Parking issues across the city.

Footpaths are not present on maximum roads. If present then they are fully occupied or they
are not well maintained. Footpaths are not disabled friendly.

Synchronization of traffic lights is required to facilitate platoon movement.

Drunk driving (enforcement issue), overloaded three-wheelers and helmet laws are poorly
enforced.

The requirement of base parking has not been very effective, poor enforcement.

Patiala needs more parking with pedestrian paths.

1. Road signs and pavement markings should be regularly maintained to serve its purpose.

2. Slow moving road users should not mix with fast traffic vehicles where ever possible.

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3. There should be an infrastructure for non-motorized vehicles like pedestrians and cyclists as
they are the most vulnerable to accidents.

4. As the growth of motorized three-wheeler and two-wheeler is increasing in medium and low-
income groups therefore proper planning of growth of these vehicles results in increase of
pedestrians and cyclists.

5. Provision of proper safety measurements for youth drivers as they are the major group in
road accidents.

6. Speed limit signs should be posted where the existing road geometry of the road alignment
are poor.

7. At frequent accident spots physical measures such as speed breakers, rumble strips should be
provided with proper warning signs.

8. Proper land use and its planning as it influence mode of travel and the length of the trip.

9. Proper monitoring of road user behavior and characteristics of the road e.g. frequency of
drunk drivers, driving speed, seat belt wearing etc.

10. Enforcing the strict laws by various state governments to improve the quality of laws and
proper implementations of safety laws.

11. Efforts to raise the awareness about the different aspects of road safety, the economic and
social implications of road accidents.

12. Providing knowledge and awareness among the peoples through training, education and
public camp.

13. Proper Urban Road Safety measures should be followed.

For Pedestrians -

1 Safe crossing facility for pedestrians.

2 Driver awareness of vulnerable road users.

3 Crossovers for pedestrians.

5 The width of footpaths should be 1.8 m to 5 m and height of footpath should not be less than
100mm.

At Junction or intersections:-

1 For improvement in visibility factor of pedestrians, the vehicle stop line can be shifted 15 to
30 ft back from the pedestrian crossing at the mid-block or signalized intersection.

2 Modified T intersections can be used where traffic volume is low and where there is need to
decrease the moving speed of vehicles. It involves a bulb at the top of the T resulting in slight
deflection of moving vehicles as they pass straight through the intersection. This helps to
reduce the speed in the intersection.

3 On Junction of rural roads with main roads rumble strips can be provided on rural roads just
ahead of their meeting point with the main road would also help in reducing the speed and
thus helps in preventing the fatal accidents.

6.2.4 Conclusion for Road safety Audit

All category of roads scored poor.

o The scores for the speed parameter comes in good category for almost all the roads
,except at mid-block of the collector road where it comes in poor category and at
intersection where its value is average .These scores are combinations of speeds of
different types of vehicles.

Poor pedestrian infrastructure (lighting, footpaths, crossings etc.) makes them even more
vulnerable to accidents.

o The accessibility for foot path and pedestrian belongs to poor category for all the types of
roads. Footpath was absent on almost all types of roads .Similarly for the accessibility for
cyclists which is zero for arterial roads and for, collector and local roads that was not

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 taken into account .This was considered as the main reason for pedestrian accidents in
Patiala .

o The lighting available for the pedestrians movement is also almost zero on every road. It

M4W were the impacting vehicles in the majority of road accidents of Patiala speeds of
M4W observed above the limit at majority roads.

Signage and motorized vehicle safety at intersections also scored in the poor category as they
score very less on all categories of road.

Zero cyclist accessibility. No individual lane is provided for cyclists on any of the road.

After combining all the parameters and analyzing the final audit score, it comes out to be
below 25 for almost all types of roads which indicate very bad sign.

6.2.5 Recommendations for Road Safety Audit

On the basis of experience and results obtained from the audit, the following measures are
proposed so as to improve the present level of Patiala in terms of road safety:-

1 Restricting the speed of motorized four wheeler from going at higher speed from their
permissible speed.

2 Improving the lighting for the pedestrians as the lighting division has got almost zero score
on all the audited roads .The lighting will also ensure the security among the pedestrians.

3 Improving the signage system throughout the city road network ,as they are most important
for safety of other road users .Speed limit sign was absent on almost every road section ,if
present they are in worst conditions .This with pedestrian crossing signage can led to big
difference in the improvement of road safety .

4 Pedestrian infrastructure need to be improved to the current present standards and it should
be provided at places where they are completely absent. They should be disabled friendly
with crossing at junctions wherever it is possible. A minimum width of 1.8 m and minimum
height of 150 mm for arterial road is likely to be used.

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