Involvement of vehicle factors in road accidents

The Road-Traffic system is a complex interaction among three components e.g. road and road environment, vehicles and road users. Like roadway fault and human error, defective and road unworthy vehicles contribute to road accidents. Vehicles may have defect in the brake system, the steering system, the lighting system along with smooth tyres etc. Studies carried out in developed countries have indicated that between 2 to 8.5 percent of accidents are directly caused by faulty vehicles. In developing countries, it is likely that vehicle defects are more often a pronounced factor in accidents as vehicle maintenance practices as well as vehicle conditions are generally much worse. The vehicle fleets consist usually of old reconditioned imported vehicles and vehicles locally modified with little or no consideration at all to passenger safety. In order to ensure overall road safety, it is important to know the involvement of vehicle factors in road accidents. In this regard an extensive study is carried out in an attempt to identify the common vehicular defects and their influence in road accidents on a typical national highway of Bangladesh. This paper presents the results and discussions of the research work along with remedial measures.