Abstract
The appropriate locations of road emergency stations (RESs) can help to decrease the impact of traffic accidents that cause around 50 million injuries per year worldwide. In this research, the appropriateness of existing RESs in the Khuzestan province, Iran, was assessed using an integrated fuzzy analytical hierarchy process (FAHP) and geographic information system (GIS) approach. The data used in this research were collected from different sources, including the department of roads, the department of health, the statistics organization, forensics, police centers, the surveying and geological department, remotely-sensed and global positioning system (GPS) data of accident high crash zones. On the basis of previous studies and the requirements of the Ministry of Health and Medical Education, as well as the department of roads of Iran for the location of RESs, nine criteria and 19 sub-criteria were adopted, including population, safety, environmental indicators, compatible area in RES, incompatible area in RES, type of road, accident high crash zones, traffic level and performance radius. The FAHP yielded the criteria weights and the ideal locations for establishing RESs using GIS analysis and aggregation functions. The resulting map matched the known road accident and high crash zones very well. The results indicated that the current RES stations are not distributed appropriately along the major roads of the Khuzestan province, and a re-arrangement is suggested. The finding of the present study can help decision-makers and authorities to achieve sustainable road safety in the case study area.
Highlights
Traffic accidents cause around 50 million injuries per year worldwide and are a significant concern for public health [1,2,3]
The locations of road emergency stations (RESs) are one of the most critical factors that can play a role in the degree of damage caused by accidents
From 2011 until 2017, on the basis of the data obtained from the Legal Medicine Organization and the emergency centers of the Khuzestan province, the number of the reported road accidents in this province was 6303, causing 877 deaths and 1210 injuries (Table 2)
Summary
Traffic accidents cause around 50 million injuries per year worldwide and are a significant concern for public health [1,2,3]. On the basis of findings by the World Health Organization (WHO), about 1.35 million people died worldwide because of road traffic accidents in 2016. Pre-hospital care has a significant role in handling and decreasing the traffic accident effects and saving the lives of people, and emergency medical services (EMS) play an indisputable role in this task [5,6]. The locations of road emergency stations (RESs) are one of the most critical factors that can play a role in the degree of damage caused by accidents. Determining optimum locations for RESs is a vital issue that road administrators face [11]
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