ROAD SAFETY REPORTS Dhaka Metropolitan Police
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ROAD SAFETY REPORTS Dhaka Metropolitan Police Traffic Accident Analysis Annual Report 1996 C O N T E N T S Page A Message from Inspector General of Police 1 A Message from Dhaka Metropolitan Police Commissioner 2 SECTION 1 Introduction 3 SECTION 2 Traffic Accident Reporting System 4 Figure 1: Proposed Police Accident Data Units 6 SECTION 3 Analysis of the Data 7 Figure 2: Accidents by Day of Week 8 Figure 3: Accidents by Hour of Day 9 Figure 4: Accidents by Month 10 Figure 5: Accidents by Thana 11 Figure 6: Casualty by Age 13 Figure 7: Casualty by Class of Road User 14 Figure 8: Vehicles Involved and the Injuries of their Drivers 15 Figure 9: Drivers Involved in Accidents 16 Figure 10: Pedestrians Hit by Vehicles 17 Figure 11: Airport Road Dhaka 19 Figure 12: Airport Road-Biswa Road 20 Figure 13: Khilkhet Bus Stand 21 Figure 14: Chittagong Road, Dhaka 22 Figure 15: Vehicles and Casualties on Chittagong Road, Dhaka 24 Figure 16: Jatrabari Crossing 25 SECTION 4 Conclusion 26 SECTION 5 Appendix 27 1. Introduction 1.1 This report was produced for Dhaka Metropolitan Police by Quazi Zakaria Islam of IDC, S. Omar Faruk and M. Khurshid Hossain, Senior Assistant Police Commissioner, DMP HQ from the Institutional Development Component (IDC) of the Second Road Rehabilitation and Maintenance Project (RRMP2). IDC is funded by the British ODA. 1.2 A new traffic accident report form, designed jointly by the Police and IDC, was introduced into the Northern Division of Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) in June 1995. By January 1996 the accident report form had been introduced to all thanas of DMP. 1.3 This report summarises the accident data collected by DMP for 1996, the first full year of the new city-wide accident reporting system. Without the full co-operation of DMP this report, and all other detailed accident investigation work, would not be possible. 1.4 The MAAPfive computer software package was developed by the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL)of the UK specifically for the storage and analysis of road accident data. It is in use in many countries of the world including a large number in Asia and has recently been adopted by a number of UK police forces. The MAAPfive system has been installed at DMP HQ and much of this document consists of output from the MAAPfive system that has been enhanced using Microsoft Office. 3 2. Traffic Accident Reporting System 2.1 Serious traffic accidents are reported by the thana police. For each accident in the DMP area the new traffic accident report form is completed by a Sub-Inspector. The form is then dispatched to DMP HQ where the grid coordinates are added and the accident data is typed into a computer. 2.2 An accident data unit has been established at DMP HQ. At present this has just one member of staff who is supervised by Assistant Commissioner of DMP. 2.3 A database of over 1200 traffic accidents has now been established of which 1001 occurred during 1996. The MAAPfive system is being used to analyse this accident database and already the pattern of accidents in Dhaka is becoming apparent. The system already has been used to:- • identify the types of accidents happening in Dhaka • identify the vehicle types most frequently involved in accidents • identify the type of people most likely to become casualties in a road accident • identify variations in the accident pattern between the 15 thanas of DMP • plot accidents on maps of the city • identify accident blackspots • identify characteristics of accidents at an accident blackspot 2.4 The level of support and co-operation from DMP has been excellent. The senior police officers have shown enthusiasm for the new accident reporting system as a method of tackling the very serious road safety problem in the city. As a direct result of the success of the system in DMP the Police have agreed to introduce the new accident reporting and analysis system nation-wide by the end of 1997. 2.5 The computer system at DMP should remain unchanged as it is now established and working well. In addition to this, five further data processing units should be established around the country. These six units will be responsible for the processing and analysis of the accident data in their area of responsibility as defined in the table below:- Location of Unit Area of Responsibility DMP HQ DMP Dhaka Range HQ Dhaka Range Chittagong Range HQ (or CMP HQ) Chittagong Range and CMP Rajshahi Range HQ (or RMP HQ) Rajshahi Range and RMP Khulna Range HQ (or KMP HQ) Khulna Range, KMP and Barisal Range Sylhet Range HQ Sylhet Range Finally, and perhaps most importantly, an accident data unit should be established at Police HQ to assemble the national accident database and to analyze the accident data at a national level. 4 2.6 The IDC project are able to support the establishing of the proposed accident data units by supplying the necessary computers, computer software and staff training. In return the project will be seeking suitable air conditioned accommodation for the computers and the assignment of at least one permanent staff member in each unit. These staff members should preferably be civilians to prevent the fast rotation of police staff from undermining the continuity of the accident data system. The ideal staff member would be a computer operator with good skills in reading and writing English. Overseas training may be provided by IDC to help develop a road safety expertise within the police. 2.7 There will be no data entry at Police HQ as the data will be received by computer diskette from the six regional teams as described in the flow chart in Figure 1. The member of staff at Police HQ should be capable of coordinating the accident data system at a national level and providing support and training to the regional teams. 5 Dhaka Metropolitan Police Dhaka Range Rajshahi Metropolitan Police (including Rajshahi Range) Police HQ, Dhaka Khulna Metropolitan Police (including Khulna & Barisal Range) Chittagong Metropolitan Police (including Chittagong Range) Sylhet Range Figure 1 Police Accident Data Units 6 3. Analysis of the Data 3.1 For the purposes of this report only data from 1996 (except for the detailed accident blackspot analysis) has been used. This will provide a benchmark on which to compare with future years and with which to compare with other regions of the country. 3.2 The accident data has been analysed at a variety of levels as follows:- · Accident, casualty and vehicle tables have been produced to show the overall nature and scale of the road safety problem in Dhaka. Charts have been produced from these tables to enable the data to be more easily interpreted. · Accident locations have been analysed using the plotting facilities within MAAP5. From these accident plots it is easy to identify accident blackspots. · Detailed studies are now being made to identify patterns at the accident blackspots identified in the plots. For these detailed studies all the available data has been used rather than restricting the analysis to 1996 accidents only. 3.3 It should be stressed that this report contains only a small selection of the possible outputs from the new accident data system. Further information can be obtained from the accident data unit at DMP HQ and in the future will be available from five further regional accident data units or from the co-ordinating accident data unit at Police HQ. 3.4 Figures 2, 3 and 4 show the distribution of accidents by day of week, hour of day and month. They show the pattern for the whole of DMP for 1996. Figure 2 shows the distribution of accidents by day of week and reveals a slight peak on Thursday (the start of the weekend in Bangladesh) but otherwise the days of week are very similar. The highest number of fatal accidents also occurs on Thursdays. 3.5 The distribution of accidents by hour of day is displayed in Figure 3 and shows a peak in the middle of the day (10am to 2pm) and again between 5pm and 6pm. The highest number of fatal accidents occurs between 6 and 7 in the morning and between 5 and 6 in the evening. Each column in the bar chart represents one hour. The number of accidents during the night is lower than during the day but there are a significant number occurring at all hours. 3.6 The distribution of accidents by month is displayed in Figure 4. It shows a surprisingly large variation from month to month. This could be a genuine seasonal variation with the accident rates highest during the hottest months of the year but it is also likely to be a reflection of the political disturbances during the first few months of 1996 when economic activity was reduced dramatically. The month with the highest number of accidents during 1996 was November although the number of fatal accidents was higher in several other months. 3.7 The distribution of accidents across the 15 thanas of DMP is shown in Figure 5. It shows a dramatic variation with Tejgaon having the most accidents. The highest severity of accidents is within Demra with about 60% of all the reported accidents involving a fatality and has the second highest number of accidents. 13 3.8 Figures 6 and 7 show characteristics of the casualties involved in accidents in DMP for 1996. Figure 6 shows the distribution of casualty ages and identifies the age group from 21 to 35, and in particular the age group from 26 to 30, as the most vulnerable.