Identifying the causes of road traffic accidents in India: An empirical investigation

Abstract

This study utilizes data for the period 2006–2015 to estimate the determinants of road fatality rates in the Indian states. We employ baseline regression, where the total traffic fatalities, total traffic injuries, rural road fatalities, and urban road fatalities are the functions of human errors in driving, weather conditions, and some control variables. This paper is exclusively focussed upon different sets of human‐driven factors in influencing the road fatality across the Indian states. Our empirical results show that reckless driving, defective motor conditions, bad weather, and reckless driving by bus, truck, and car drivers are found to cause road accidents. We further find that the increase in motorization rates and rash driving are the primary causes behind the road fatalities, and bad weather play a major role in causing road fatalities and injuries in urban areas. However, road fatalities are increasing; still, cases of under reporting, lack of proper road safety regulation, improper investigation procedures, increasing vehicle usages, and higher urbanization have made the matters quite worse in India.

An Exploration of Characteristics and Time Series Forecast of Fatal Road Crashes in Manipal, India

“…This corroborates the findings from the WHO Global status report on alcohol and health, which reported increased instances of crashes under the influence of alcohol among young drivers due to weekend get-togethers [1]. Additionally, it is also in alignment with the MoRTH annual report (2019) [5] and with some previous studies [11,24].…”

“…For the next major cause of fatal crash, i.e., driving under the influence of alcohol, the analysis revealed that it contributes to almost one-fifth of the total fatal crashes. This is in alignment with the MoRTH annual report (2019) [5] and with some previous studies [24]. Here, it should be noted that in addition to driving under the influence of alcohol, the role of other factors such as vehicle and environment should also be given importance in future investigations.…”

“…As for the causes of crash, speeding the vehicle beyond the lawful limit is the most common cause of fatal crash, which is similar to the findings of several previous studies [3,4,21,24]. This is also reflected in the report published by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, where it is stated that over-speeding is the leading cause of fatal road crashes, accounting for 71.1% of total crash [5].…”

“…Furthermore, "hit and run" accounted for the largest share, 19.4% of total persons killed in 2019 [5]. Previous studies have reported similar findings [10,24].…”

“…Speeding is influenced by several psychological factors such as beliefs and perceptions associated with speeding; intentions for speeding include impression management, risk-taking and sensation-seeking [23]. The contributions of other causes of road crashes, such as driving under the influence of alcohol, were found to be less compared with speeding [24,25]. Furthermore, "hit and run" accounted for the largest share, 19.4% of total persons killed in 2019 [5].…”