Managing safety along the roads of developing countries

Developing countries suffer from the increase in accident rates and the corresponding number of fatalities and injuries. This is directly related to the overall culture of the people; including discipline, sense of responsibility, perfecting what people do. Therefore, the human factor is the major reason for the increased number of fatalities in developing countries. Furthermore, poor planning of infrastructure requires doubling the effort to overcome the human factors. Add to that the undisciplined traffic caused by the lack of police supervision, since the feel of supervision is part of the enforcement. In addition, the human factor is indirectly responsible for driving as well as the participation of the vehicle as a major factor in road accidents. This is mainly because the human factor is needed for proper maintenance of the vehicle including steering, suspension, tires, lights, wipers, etc. The maintenance concept is key to increasing the level of safety and reducing the impact of vehicles on accidents rates. Additionally, the problem of poor road planning, such as constructing roads next to waterways, requires expensive and advanced passive measures. Also, traffic accidents increase due to excessive speeding, which is caused by the lack of enforcement and responsibility to one’s life and the lives of others. Therefore, road safety managers face a tremendous task since most of the road accidents are due to irresponsible human factors, not to mention randomness in entering and existing highways. It has to be noted that, the accumulation of incorrect road designs and ignoring proper road safety audits during road planning, and the slow-action in taking proper steps in response to road safety audits are amongst the main reasons for traffic accidents. Furthermore, the effectiveness of traffic measures is very important to lowering the number of accidents. Improper traffic measures can be caused by the accumulation of dust and sand on the road, which cause road markings to soil and disappear. Add to that the improper behavior of drivers who drive on top of a road marking, thus reducing its effectiveness as well as its life span. For example, a road in an agricultural area needs to be remarked after 2 to 3 months after marking operations due to bad driving habits, especially by tractors crossing these roads with muddy tires. These non-typical problems require non-typical solutions such as the use of cheap, non-recyclable material for traffic signs, or water blast for cleaning road markings. Political pressures also play an important role in road safety. This is true as certain governmental entities may be responsible for the position of entry and exit locations as well as unplanned crossings through medians. In addition, the effectiveness of road safety professionals plays a major role in reducing the number of accidents on the roads. Those professionals need to perform at levels comparable to those of their counterparts from developed countries, despite the deficiencies in training. Finally, road safety gets its importance from cultural and religious values. For example, the Holy Koran states that “He who kills a sole is as if he killed all mankind, and he who saves a sole is as if he saves all mankind”. All these problems will be illustrated in a presentation showing the challenges facing developing countries and the efforts put forward to solve it.