Abstract:
Road traffic crashes are fundamental problems being faced by societies that resulted in loss of life, injuries to human body and financial losses to the local and national economy. And caused by different factors related with road and environmental factors, vehicle characteristics and road users. The objective of this study was to analyze road traffic crashes and to determine the road traffic crash black spot’s location using Mixed Crash Frequency-Crash Rate and Quantum Geographic Information System along Woreta – Nefas Mewucha Road. In addition, the study aims to identify risk factors of road traffic crashes by undertaking Road Safety Audit. Ten-year police reported road traffic crash were collected from police stations along the road to analyze the crash along the route. It was found that there was an average growth rates of the fatal crashes 16.9%. Road users those in the age group of 18-30, are the victims of most traffic crashes. 70% of them are men. Passengers account for 48% of affected road users. Black spot locations were identified using Kernel Density estimation method using different band width. Google Earth and Google Street map were used to place crash locations. Around stations 42,43, 41,44,45,60,81,7,30,46,67, and 75 respectively were found to be the first ten black spot locations. Safety audit was conducted to analyze existing road safety issues along the route. Lack of pedestrian protection, restricted visibility of road, pavement marking problem, pavement distress, lack of traffic control devices and bad drivers driving behavior are some of the causes for traffic crash in this research.
Finally, remedial measures were identified on possible interventions to improve road safety in the Amhara Region in general and in the study area in particular.
Key words: Road traffic crashes, Black spots, Risk factors