HEAVY VEHICLE SAFETY IN OMAN: A SITUATIONAL ANALYSIS Islam Al Bulushi Bachelor of Health Science (Public Health), Queensland University of Technology, Australia European Master of Science in International Health, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Berlin, Germany Thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Queensland University of Technology Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland Brisbane, Australia 2017 Keywords Oman; heavy vehicle safety; road safety; deterrence theory; safety culture; workplace health and safety i Abstract The Sultanate of Oman is an Arab country in the south-eastern corner of the Arabian Peninsula with a total land area of 309,000 square kilometres. After the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Oman ranks second in size among the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries (United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar). Oman’s health indicators have shown consistent improvement over the past few decades and are approaching those of developed countries. However, there has been an increasing shift in deaths towards non-infectious diseases. In particular, the burden of road traffic injuries (RTIs) is very high, and Oman ranks highest in the Arab world in terms of road traffic fatality rates. It also has one of the highest traffic fatality rates per population worldwide, with almost 30 deaths per 100,000 persons: the global average road traffic fatality rate is 19 deaths per 100,000 persons for countries with a similar population size. For Oman’s economic development, heavy vehicle usage on the nation’s roads is a key factor contributing to national growth. This makes road safety an important issue within the broader transport domain, along with the safety of heavy vehicle operations and management. In 2007, there were 629,670 registered vehicles in Oman; heavy vehicles accounted for nearly 6 per cent of total vehicle registrations. Due to rapid economic growth, there has been a sharp increase in the total number of all types of registered vehicles, from 755,937 in 2009 to 881,360 in 2011. Moreover, heavy vehicles now account for nearly 12.5 per cent of total registered vehicles in 2011. This is significant, as research from other countries proposes that morbidity and mortality from heavy vehicle crashes are proportionally higher than the percentage of heavy vehicle registrations. Further, the severity of the outcomes of heavy vehicle road traffic crashes (RTCs) is greater than that of motor vehicle crashes. In Oman, limited formal data is available on heavy vehicle crashes, and is mainly drawn from the annual statistics reports of the Royal Oman Police (ROP). These reports generally consist of total aggregate statistics with limited description ii and detail. Therefore, it is important to expand this knowledge base and study the underlying factors associated with heavy vehicle crashes and associated driving behaviours. In the road safety context, it has been acknowledged that organisational culture influences a heavy vehicle driver’s safety behaviour. The concept of the relationship between culture and safety behaviour often is referred to in broad terms as safety culture, which is a growing area of research in safety science. This domain is of importance for both organisational factors associated with safety and the impact of this culture on drivers’ behaviours, and consequently on road safety. Within this research program, these factors are examined as part of the cultural context surrounding heavy vehicle driving management and operations in Oman. Understanding employees’ perception about their organisation’s safety priorities is of importance in developing heavy vehicle safety strategies. However, when examining safety culture of the heavy vehicle industry in a broad context, it is also important to consider the broader laws and regulations that control heavy vehicles. Furthermore, it is essential to examine how these laws are enforced on the road by police and their effectiveness in creating the desired deterrence effect among road users, particularly heavy vehicle drivers. The current research adopted a mixed method approach and consisted of three studies. Study 1 analysed secondary data of the ROP heavy vehicles crash statistics from January 2009 to December 2011. The aim of this analysis was to investigate the key characteristics of heavy vehicle crashes and to identify the significant environmental and driving behaviours associated with heavy vehicle crashes in Oman. It was found that 22,554 RTCs occurred during 2009 –2011 of which 3,114 involved heavy vehicles. Of these crashes, 1,859 were classified by the ROP as ‘at- fault’. As a result of these at-fault crashes, there were 268 deaths and 2,134 individuals were injured. In the univariate analysis of the at-fault heavy vehicle crashes, driver age, nationality, licence status, wearing a seatbelt, type of crash and the reasons for the crash were significantly associated with fatal crashes. Drivers aged 41–50 years were at higher risk of deaths, as were expatriates. Surprisingly, licensed drivers were slightly more likely to be involved in a fatal crash. With regard to the type of crash, fatalities were more likely when a person or animal was run over. Moreover, when the reasons for the crash were attributed to driver fatigue, iii overtaking increased the risk of fatality. In the multivariate logistic regression model, age was a significant factor associated with crashes resulting in fatalities, with drivers aged 41–50 years being 2.09 times more likely to have a fatal crash than those aged 21–30 years. Not wearing a seatbelt increased the possibility of fatality 6.58 times compared to those wearing seatbelt. Licence status was also found to be significantly associated with the likelihood of fatality, with licensed drivers 1.64 times more likely to be involved in fatal crashes compared to unlicensed drivers. However it is important to note that, about two-third (66.7 per cent) of drivers were unlicensed. Run over crashes were 2.38 times more likely to result in a fatality when compared to crashes caused by vehicle collisions. Similarly, crashes related to fatigue (10.65) and vehicle defects (3.06) had an increased likelihood of fatality when compared to crashes caused by speed. Overall, this analysis found a wide range of factors was significantly associated with fatal crashes. This includes factors related to people, culture, behaviour, vehicles, road environment and government policies and practices, including licensing system. This highlights the need for a wider approach towards addressing the issue of heavy vehicle safety in Oman. Study 2 was a quantitative (face-to-face) questionnaire-based interview survey of 400 heavy vehicle drivers. This study was aimed to explore heavy vehicle drivers’ beliefs, attitudes and practices in regard to the wider contextual organisational safety that influences their safe driving behaviours. These interviews were conducted at roadside in five different governorates of Oman. When undertaking the analysis of this data collected, little variance was found in the means and standard deviations of drivers’ self-reported driving behaviours. Upon further investigation of data, it became increasingly evident that the survey responses did not fit the current general perceptions and observation (about heavy vehicle drivers and operations) of the researches, the ROP, the Research Council-Oman and other key stakeholders of this area. In addition and importantly, Study 1 analysis indicated a broad range of risk factors associated with driver behaviours, society and culture, vehicle and road characteristics and government policies and practices which were significantly related to fatal crashes and serious injuries within the heavy vehicle industry in Oman. However, the analysis of the data in Study 2 did not reflect the general findings of Study 1. In short, there appeared to be a strong impact of social desirability in the drivers’ responses to the survey questions. Therefore, the third iv study investigated whether social desirability may be present in the driver’ responses and was there evidence to support other data identified in the project which was at odds to the survey questionnaire data. Study 3 was a qualitative study using the participant observation technique. It aimed to examine drivers’ behavioural, social and cultural contexts and environmental factors surrounding heavy vehicle operations. It also aimed to investigate the social desirability responses of heavy vehicle drivers in Study 2. Hundreds of observations of hundreds of drivers were undertaken, and a series of detailed participant observations were conducted for 49 drivers of heavy vehicles in their gathering (rest) areas. These observations also involved discussion with heavy vehicle drivers around domains from Study 2, including work stress, fatigue, the average number of hours sleep obtained every night and the safety climate of the trucking industry. Data collection was conducted over a three-week period. Study 3 findings strongly supported the notion of social desirability responses in Study 2. The data was analysed using thematic analysis under the rubric of Bronfenbrenner’s (1977) Ecological Model of Development (BEMD). The findings of this analysis identified ten themes that were related to common behaviours/risk factors in the heavy vehicle industry in Oman: (1) drink driving; (2) speeding; (3) overtaking; (4) driving with bald or re-treaded tyres; (5) driving a truck with known faults; (6) use of mobile phones; (7) overloading; (8) unlicensed driving; (9) fatigue; and (10) insecure loads. These behavioural/ risk factors were found to be common practice in much of the heavy vehicle industry. Furthermore, the BEMD was used to explore the influences on heavy vehicle drivers’ behaviours of systems identified as micro-, meso-, exo- and macro-systems. In the current research, the micro-system refers to the driver and vehicle characteristics. The meso-system refers to road infrastructure and other road users’ behaviours. The exo-system refers to heavy vehicle industry policy, procedures, influence of clients/customer and the difference between what the companies say and do.