Number Of Road Traffic Deaths Research Articles

Automated and intelligent system for World Health Organization data forecasting

AbstractTechnological advances and social transformations have enabled the circulation of a large amount of data in the health area. Analyzing this data becomes more critical and more challenging as the volume of data increases. An alternative to performing this analysis is to use data analysis techniques to process input data sets and build consistent databases for input to machine learning algorithms. Thus, it can forecast future scenarios and collaborate with knowledge discovery. In this context, this work aims to develop a parameterizable system with automated decisions capable of collecting and analyzing many indicators provided by the World Health Organization (WHO). After these analysis steps, the system applies machine learning algorithms for predictions of different indicators to process information automatically, finding different knowledge discovery scenarios. Thus, the contribution of this article is an automated and intelligent system for WHO data forecasting. The efficiency of the system's choices and forecasts was proven with experiments in five different areas of health, obtaining assertiveness by up to 99.92%, root‐mean‐square error (RMSE) by up to 0.0286, and Kling‐Gupta Efficiency (KGE) by up to 0.9988, hitting even the most complex cases, as shown in the confusion matrices. Finally, three case studies were carried out to expand the studies and present the potential of the system in different contexts: anemia in children, age‐standardized suicide rates in men, and number of road traffic deaths.

Measuring the effect of vehicle safety on road traffic crash severity in Iran: using structural equation modeling

Objective: Vehicle safety plays a key role in reducing the number of road traffic deaths and serious injuries. This study aims to investigate the effect of vehicle safety on the severity of traffic crashes in Iran using structural equation modeling (SEM).
 Methods: This was a comparative cross-sectional study of all imported vehicles with Aras free trade zone license plate as well as all domestic vehicles (cars produced in Iran) commuting on Tabriz-Jolfa road. The study population included drivers who had accidents on Tabriz-Jolfa road over a period of one year from September 22, 2020 to September 21, 2021 and were injured or their vehicles had been damaged (n=652). Data was collected using set of questionnaires with 10 sections. The effect of independent variables, as exogenous latent variables (human, vehicle, and environmental factors), on a dependent variable, as an endogenous latent variable (crash severity) was measured using SEM. All data were analyzed using Mplus 8.0 software.
 Results: In the structure part of the model with foreign vehicles group, the effect sizes of three exogenous variables, i.e., human, environmental, and vehicle factors, on the dependent variables were found to be 0.412, 0.396 and 0.358, respectively. The effect sizes in the model with domestic vehicles were found to be 0.312, 0.702 and 0.820, respectively. 
 Conclusion: Vehicle factors (variables related to car safety) had a high impact on crash severity in the national license plate and domestically manufactured vehicle group, indicating the necessity of improving vehicle safety.

Prevalence of near-miss events and its impact among medical students using bikes and cars in Chennai: A cross-sectional study

CONTEXT: The WHO's Global Status Report on road safety 2015 indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries. Urgent action is needed to achieve the determined target for road safety, reflected in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (goals 3 and 11), and halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2020.AIM: This present study aims to estimate the prevalence of near-miss events among medical students using bikes and cars in Chennai.MATERIALS AND METHODS: A total of 300 undergraduate and postgraduate medical students who were studying at the Government Medical College of Chennai were included in this cross-sectional study. A predesigned semi structured validated questionnaire was used to collect the data from the participants and was analysis was done.STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: In this study, the data analyzed were qualitative data. Chi-square test was used to test the significance. Analysis was done using SPSS version 17.RESULTS: More than half of the students (61.7%) participated in the study belonged to the age group 17–21 years and were pursuing 2nd year of MBBS. The prevalence of near-miss among medical students was found to be 56.3%. This study revealed that many students had been involved in the near-miss events due to violations of traffic rules and regulations. Most of the students showed corrective behavior after previous near-miss experiences to avoid road traffic accidents.

Survey Based Road Safety Analysis to Understand the Perspective of the General Public

The number of road traffic deaths continues to climb, reaching 1.35 million deaths globally in 2016 and road traffic injury is now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years (WHO, 2018). Road safety is officially recognized as a global safety issue and it is also included in the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a questionnaire based analysis, which aims to understand the outlook of the general public regarding the current road safety system and to understand the level of awareness regarding the same. It also aims to compare the perspective of drivers and non-drivers towards traffic rules. Majority of the participants were from the age group of 15-30 years as they are most directly affected by road accidents. Our objective is to understand the shortcomings in the current road safety system through the perspective of the general public, which can then help in implementing a more efficient system in order to decrease the number of road accidents. Inadequate traffic system also significantly affects the economic growth of the region. According to the World Road Statistics, 2018, India ranks 1st in the number of road accident deaths hence there is an urgent need to understand the root cause for such a high number of accidents and to find solutions for this issue. Our results show that there is a need to implement stricter rules for road safety and this perspective of the general public is not affected by the status of the individual (driver, non-driver). It also suggests the need for increasing the level of licence tests conducted. Increasing awareness at an early stage among the people regarding the seriousness of following traffic rules can help prevent road accidents at the baseline level

Survey Based Road Safety Analysis to Understand the Perspective of the General Public

The number of road traffic deaths continues to climb, reaching 1.35 million deaths globally in 2016 and road traffic injury is now the leading cause of death for children and young adults aged 5–29 years (WHO, 2018). Road safety is officially recognized as a global safety issue and it is also included in the Sustainable Development Goals. This is a questionnaire based analysis, which aims to understand the outlook of the general public regarding the current road safety system and to understand the level of awareness regarding the same. It also aims to compare the perspective of drivers and non-drivers towards traffic rules. Majority of the participants were from the age group of 15-30 years as they are most directly affected by road accidents. Our objective is to understand the shortcomings in the current road safety system through the perspective of the general public, which can then help in implementing a more efficient system in order to decrease the number of road accidents. Inadequate traffic system also significantly affects the economic growth of the region. According to the World Road Statistics, 2018, India ranks 1st in the number of road accident deaths hence there is an urgent need to understand the root cause for such a high number of accidents and to find solutions for this issue. Our results show that there is a need to implement stricter rules for road safety and this perspective of the general public is not affected by the status of the individual (driver, non-driver). It also suggests the need for increasing the level of licence tests conducted. Increasing awareness at an early stage among the people regarding the seriousness of following traffic rules can help prevent road accidents at the baseline level.

Road traffic mortality in Russia: definitions, trends and perspectives

In 2016, the crude death rate from road traffic accidents in Russia decreased, according to police data, to a level not observed since 1971, after which it continued to decline. The positive trends apparently served as the basis for the optimistic goals laid down in the Road Safety Strategy for 2018-2024. 
 Based on police data, vital statistics on mortality and international databases on mortality and road safety, the authors try to answer these questions: Are the goals set achievable within the specified timeframe, and how consistent are they with European trends in road traffic mortality, as well as with Russia's present differentiation of road traffic mortality by space, age and category of road users? 
 The study showed that the deadlines for achieving targets in the Road Safety Strategy are very tight. Today, only large and medium-sized cities have the potential to implement a new Road Safety Strategy in which the crude death rate should not exceed 1.5-2 deaths per 100 thousand people by 2024, whereas in small cities and rural settlements - 2.5-3 deaths per 100 thousand people. For many years, the main risk groups have been drivers and passengers aged 15-44 and pedestrians over 60 years old, who do not appear in the Road Safety Strategy as priority categories.
 In addition, the article shows that in order to eliminate the existing discrepancies between the numbers of deaths published by the two official reporting systems (the police and Rosstat), the very first step might be for Rosstat to stop calculating the number of road traffic deaths based on the current version of the abridged classification of causes of death and transition to one of the two international approaches for aggregating three-digit codes of causes of death used by the WHO.

An analysis of risk factors associated with road crash severities in Namibia

Road crash is a leading cause of death and disabilities in Namibia and other developing countries. Based on recent trends, the World Health Organization indicated that progress to realize Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) target 3.6 – which calls for a 50% reduction in the number of road traffic deaths by 2020 – remains far from sufficient. To contribute to efforts in reducing road fatalities in Namibia, this study examined risk factors associated with the severity of crashes recorded in the country. Mixed logit modelling methodology was adopted to address the problem of unobserved heterogeneity in injury severity analysis. Model estimation results reveal that collision with pedestrians, head-on collisions, ran-off road collisions and crashes involving high occupancy passenger vehicles were more likely to result in fatalities and severe injuries. The findings and recommendations of this study are expected to enhance countermeasure implementation to reduce road crashes in Namibia.

Towards Computationally Efficient and Realtime Distracted Driver Detection With MobileVGG Network

According to the World Health Organization (WHO) report, the number of road traffic deaths have been continuously increasing since last few years though the rate of deaths relative to world's population has stabilized in recent years. As per the survey of National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), distracted driving is a leading factor in road accidents. In this paper, we present a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based approach for detecting and classifying the driver distraction. In the development of safety features for Advanced Driver Assistance Systems, the algorithm not only has to be accurate but also efficient in terms of memory and speed. Hence, we focused on developing computationally efficient CNN while maintaining good accuracy. We propose a new architecture named as mobileVGG based on depthwise separable convolutions. We evaluate results of the proposed network on the American University in Cairo (AUC) distracted driver detection dataset as well as Statefarm's dataset on Kaggle and compare the performance with state-of-the-art CNN architectures from literature. Our proposed mobileVGG architecture with just 2.2M parameters outperforms earlier approaches while achieving 95.24% and 99.75% accuracy on AUC and Statefarm's dataset respectively with less computational complexity and memory requirement.

Pattern of common injuries in road traffic accidents

Road accidents kill large number of people and it is as ‘war on the roads’. According to a WHO report, the number of road traffic deaths continues to climb, reaching a high of 1.35 million in 2016 is the 8th leading cause of death for all age and is the leading cause of death for children and young adults.1 It worse, 80 per cent of these deaths and injuries take place in the developing countries. Road traffic accidents have got multi-factorial causation. The time taken between the accident and reaching the hospital is critical and that is a very important lacuna in providing medical aid to the victims. There are no good mobile ambulance services and well-run trauma centers available except few. After institutional ethical clearance for the study, study was carried out at Mortuary of Dept of Forensic Medicine, GGS Medical College, Faridkot. It is prospective study. All the dead bodies brought for postmortem examinations during the period Jan 2011-Dec 2017 were analyzed. The detailed analysis of these cases was based on the inquest report, medical records, and evaluation of autopsy reports. Out of 1518 medico legal autopsies studies during the study period, 33.66% were of vehicular accident fatalities with commonest vulnerable age group is 20-30 years 28.96%, with preponderance of 91% males and majority were of 71% rural residence of which 41.09% were hospitalized. Brain injury 56.61% in majority location of internal organ injury on the body. With regard to musculoskeletal injuries topped the list of injuries of RTA in all age groups of victims involving the limbs 46.97%. Wounds are produced which are in combinations of abrasion, contusion, lacerations and fracture dislocation seen majority of cases. The most common cause of death was Injury to brain 52.05%, maximum 45% died within one hour of the incidence. Road traffic accidents continue to be a speedily rising problem, causing heavy loss of manpower and resources. Road users should be properly trained by auth

World Health Organization's estimates of death related to road traffic crashes and their discrepancy with other countries' national report.

:Background:Due to a lack of effective registry system for road traffic deaths, some international organizations like the World Health Organization provide the estimated number of road traffic deaths. It was shown that there are differences in the number of road traffic deaths between the WHO estimates and national reports even in High-Income Countries. This study aimed to an investigation of reasons for differences between the national reports and world health organization estimates about road traffic deaths. Methods:This study focus to investigate the World Health Organization reports of Global Status Report for Road Safety in years of 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2018 and related articles about the estimates of deaths related to road traffic crashes and the observed differences between the WHO estimates and national reports.Results:The findings showed that the observed differences between the WHO estimates and national reports could be due to errors in the road traffic death registration system, errors in the regression model which was used for estimation, proposed variables for estimations, or all of them.Conclusions:The estimations of WHO about road traffic deaths can be useful for countries especially for those which don’t have the road traffic registry system or the registry system does not meet the quality criteria. These estimates may not be sufficiently robust if disregard for spa-tial differences, the epidemiological pattern of risk factors among the countries, and the type of regression model which was used for estimation.

Traffic Education for Inexperienced Drivers with Virtual Driving Simulator

The numbers of vehicles in the traffic and population density have been increased with rising affluence. Besides this situation, people are not enough information about the traffic. In 2013, the number of road accidents was 1.207.354 in Turkey according to the Turkish Statistical Institute. World Health Organization’s data in 2013 says that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths is about 1.24 million per year. Along with these motivations, we developed a system for traffic education with both theoretical and practical exercises. The theoretical part of the system includes some tests which are about traffic, engine of vehicle and first aid information. The theoretical system has 10 test questions for each user. Another part of the system is a simulator with software and hardware. Firstly, in the system, a user answers the test and he/she should be successful at least 70 percent. Then, the user can use the simulator. The simulator includes a steering wheel, a pedal system, a shift knob, a driver seat, a visual display and a virtual platform with software. With this system, inexperienced drivers will be able to acquire experience.

Role of leadership in ensuring road safety in low- and middle-income nations: World Health Organization

The global consensus is that road traffic deaths and injuries are an unacceptable and alarming outcome for the sake of mobility. Even though, road safety has been recognized as a public health concern and efforts have been taken to improve the same, the reality is that the number of road traffic deaths is still increasing. Acknowledging the magnitude of the problem and its preventable nature, it is the need of the hour to have a more effective leadership, both from the government and the private sector in ensuring road safety. In order to improve the leadership in road safety, the World Health Organization has come up with a holistic policy on road safety and management of vehicles. In conclusion, the presence of a strong leadership is the crucial element which has to be addressed in the low and middle income nations and it is high time that all the concerned stakeholders work in a coordinated manner to deal with the preventable problem of road traffic injuries.

What are the social determinants of road traffic death in global context?

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that road accidents cause over 1.3 million deaths per year. Considering WHO conceptual framework for action on the social determinants of health (SDH), this study aim to answer the question of why some countries have high levels of deaths due to road traffic crashes, and some have low levels. Methods: Qualitative comparative analysis using fuzzy sets (fsQCA) was performed to identify the structural conditions linking to road traffic death across 123 countries from all WHO regions. The outcome was 2016 reported number of road traffic deaths. The potential causal conditions according to the SDH conceptual framework were level of country economic development (GDP), urban population (% of total), availability of health-system resources and income inequality. The data at country level were obtained from the different international data sources, during 2015-2017. Results: The fsQCA truth table analysis revealed one pathway to low-level road traffic death that was low-level income inequality combined with high-level health system resources and high-level GDP. This pathway specified a combination of structural conditions that is sufficient to explain low-level road traffic death. On the other hand, the fsQCA truth table analysis indicated three pathways to high-level road traffic death; (1) low-level urbanization combined with low-level health system resources and low-level GDP, (2) high-level income inequality and low-level urbanization and low-level GDP (3) high-level income inequality combined with high-level urbanization and low-level health system resources. These configurations specified the combination of structural conditions that were sufficient to explain high-level road traffic death. The case of IRAN with a relatively high level of economic development (fuzzy score=0.65), low level of health-system resources (fuzzy score=0.1), a high level of urbanization (fuzzy score=0.85) and high level of inequality (fuzzy score=1) indicated a configuration linked to the set of countries with high rates of deaths from road accidents in the world (fuzzy score=0.82). Conclusion: The structural determinants and conditions of daily life that highlighted by WHO commission on social determinants of health may responsible for a part of inequalities in death from road traffic accidents.

Epidemiological Pattern of Deaths Caused by Traffic Accidents in East Azerbaijan, Iran

Background: Traffic accidents are one of the main causes of mortality in the world. They are currently estimated to be the ninth leading cause of death across all age-groups globally and are predicted to become the seventh leading cause of death by 2030. Road traffic crashes are a leading cause of death among young people, and the main cause among those aged 15–29 years worldwide. The number of road traffic deaths continues to rise steadily, reaching 1.35 million in 2016, from 1.15 million in 2000. The purpose of the present study is to investigate epidemiologic pattern, and trend of deaths due to accidents in East Azerbaijan province, Iran, from 2012 to 2016, in order to identify its effective determinants to conduct prevention programs. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted using mortality data of province health center from 2012 to 2016. The data of deaths due to traffic accidents were analyzed using descriptive statistics by means of Microsoft Excel 2013 and SPSS 16. Results: A number of 4529 deaths due to traffic accidents occurred during five years of the study period, which were 4.95% of total deaths of all causes, and the third leading cause of mortality. Of all accident deaths, 79.5% were male and 69.7% took place in urban residents. Most accidents occurred in the summer (30.1%), and in August (10.9%). The highest (20.8%) and the lowest (18.2%) deaths occurred in 2016 and 2014, respectively. However, the highest incidence was in 2012 with 26.28 per 100000, and the lowest incidence in 2014 with 23.15 per 100000. The mean age and SD for males and females were 41.15±20.27 and 41.45±23.73 respectively, and the highest percentage of deaths happened in the age-group 20-29 (18.4%), followed by age-group 30-39 (18.3%). One hundred and seventy-eight (3.9%) accident victims were children under five years of age, one of the most important causes of death for this age group. Conclusion: Regarding the high incidence of mortality due to accidents, identification and correction of high-risk areas, and strict enforcement of traffic rules are necessary in order to prevent accidents and related deaths.

Applying the five-pillar matrix to the decade of action for road safety in Qatar: identifying gaps and priorities

IntroductionRoad traffic injuries (RTIs) are the leading cause of preventable death in Qatar; consequently, the country has participated in the Decade of Action for Road Safety (DoARS) coordinated by the...

Causes and Health-Related Outcomes of Road Traffic Crashes in the United Arab Emirates: Panel Data Analysis of Traffic Fines

AIMS: To investigate the main causes and consequences of road traffic injuries (RTIs) in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the effect of traffic fines on these injuries. 
 
 METHODS: This cross-sectional study analysed road traffic deaths and injuries and panel data of monthly traffic accident fines from 2012 to 2016 in the UAE. A fixed-effects (FE) model was used to determine the factors associated with RTIs over time. The FE model removes the effect of time-invariant aspects from the independent variables, thus assessing the net impact of the independent variables on the outcome variable. The independent variables were dangerous driving behaviors defined as a sudden turn, neglect and lack of attention, and excess speed. The outcome variables were the total number of road traffic deaths and injuries.
 
 RESULTS: Road traffic deaths, severe injuries, and moderate injuries remained constant from 2012 to 2016 but mild injuries decreased starting 2013. Human errors such as a sudden turn (22%), excess speed (12%) and lack of road user appreciation (12%) play a central role in road traffic injuries. The number of fines issued to drivers (66% for speeding) increased by 50% in the five year period. 
 
 CONCLUSION: Road traffic injuries in the UAE remained stable from 2012 to 2016 despite an increase in traffic fines issued to drivers. Human errors continue to be a major cause of these injuries. Additional enforcement strategies are needed to address this health burden.

Save LIVES technical package: 22 interventions that could make a difference.

The Save LIVES: a road safety technical package was produced and launched in May 2017 by the WHO to support road safety decision makers and practitioners in their efforts to significantly reduce the number of road traffic deaths in their countries. This Special Feature explains the process used to develop the package and how and why the 22 interventions were included. It concludes by encouraging researchers and practitioners to tailor their road safety packages to their own realities by following five practical steps.

Ecological study of road traffic injuries in the eastern Mediterranean region: country economic level, road user category and gender perspectives

BackgroundThe Eastern Mediterranean region has the second highest number of road traffic injury mortality rates after the African region based on 2013 data, with road traffic injuries accounting for 27% of the total injury mortality in the region. Globally the number of road traffic deaths has plateaued despite an increase in motorization, but it is uncertain whether this applies to the Region. This study investigated the regional trends in both road traffic injury mortality and morbidity and examined country-based differences considering on income level, categories of road users, and gender distribution.MethodsRegister-based ecological study linking data from Global Burden of Disease Study with the United Nations Statistics Division for population and World Bank definition for country income level. Road traffic injury mortality rates and disability-adjusted life years were compiled for all ages at country level in 1995, 2005, 2015 and combined for a regional average (n = 22) and a global average (n = 122). The data were stratified by country economic level, road user category and gender.ResultsRoad traffic injury mortality rates in the Region were higher than the global average for all three reference years but suggest a downward trend. In 2015 mortality rates were more than twice as high in low and high income countries compared to global income averages and motor vehicle occupants had a 3-fold greater mortality than the global average. Severe injuries decreased by more than half for high/middle income countries but remained high for low income countries; three times higher for males than females.ConclusionDespite a potential downward trend, inequalities in road traffic injury mortality and morbidity burden remain high in the Eastern Mediterranean region. Action needs to be intensified and targeted to implement and enforce safety measures that prevent and mitigate severe motor vehicle crashes in high income countries especially and invest in efforts to promote public, active transport for vulnerable road users in the resource poor countries of the Region.

An analysis of Malaysia road traffic death distribution by road environment

Various initiatives, strategies and programmes have been taken by the Government of Malaysia to resolve issues pertaining to road traffic deaths. Nevertheless, the implementation of the programmes outlined in Malaysian Road Safety Plan 2006 needs to be enhanced in order to achieve the set targets. In this regard, it is imperative for all parties concerning road safety to determine the factors that significantly contribute to road traffic deaths. According to the Ministry of Works, Malaysia, the blackspot treatment programme (which is centred on the elimination of road hazards by engineering approaches) is successful in reducing the number of injuries due to road traffic accidents up to a certain extent. This study is focussed on analysing road traffic deaths caused by various road environment elements recorded by the police from 2000 to 2011 in order to determine their distribution, proportion and relationship with fatal accidents. The Chi-square test and Marascuilo procedure with 5% level of significance are used in this study. Based on locality, the number of road traffic deaths in rural area (66%) is significantly higher compared with that in urban areas (34%). Based on road category, the number of road traffic deaths is the highest for federal roads, whereas the highest rate of fatalities per kilometre is recorded for expressways. Based on road segment, the number of road traffic deaths is the highest for straight road segments, followed by bends. In addition, the number of road traffic deaths is the highest for Y/T junctions, followed by cross junctions. The lowest number of road traffic deaths is recorded for interchanges and roundabouts. The results show that only 11.25% of the total road traffic deaths are related to road defects. The highest proportion of deaths due to road defects (48.6%) is associated with lack of street lighting provision, whereas road shoulder edge drop-off and potholes contribute 15.4% and 11.2% of road traffic deaths, respectively.

Road Traffic Accidents in India: Issues and Challenges

Abstract The main aim of this paper is to analyze the road accidents in India at national, state, and metropolitan city level. Analysis shows that the distribution of road accidental deaths and injuries in India varies according to age, gender, month and time. Age group 30-59 years is the most vulnerable population group, though males face higher level of fatalities and injuries than their female counterparts. Moreover, road accidents are relatively higher in extreme weather and during working hours. Analysis of road accident scenario at state and city level shows that there is a huge variation in fatality risk across states and cities. Fatality risk in 16 out of 35 states and union territories is higher than the all India average. Although, burden of road accidents in India is marginally lower in its metropolitan cities, almost 50% of the cities face higher fatality risk than their moffusil counterparts. In general, while in many developed and developing countries including China, road safety situation is generally improving, India faces a worsening situation. Without increased efforts and new initiatives, the total number of road traffic deaths in India is likely to cross the mark of 250,000 by the year 2025. There is thus an urgent need to recognize the worsening situation in road deaths and injuries and to take appropriate action.