Examining How People Perceive the Reasons Behind Traffic Accidents on Roads

About 1.24 million people die each year on the world caused by Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) and between 20 and 50 million sustain non-fatal injuries. Young adults aged between 15 and 44 years account for 59% of global road traffic deaths [1]. Traffic accidents are the second leading cause of death globally among children and youth people. In addition to pain, grief and social suffering, these accidents cost countries 1% to 2% of their gross national products [2]. Traffic accidents are a complex occurrence. They are caused by a multitude of factors, including roadway and its environment, road users behavior and vehicle features. Road user’s behavior, vehicle speed, vehicle conditions and roadway conditions affect the likelihood of involvement [3]. With a population of over 9.8 million and an area of 90 thousand square kilometers, Jordan is a country in the Middle East. Jordan has a severe and concerning issue with road accidents. Compared with developed and a number of developing countries, Jordan has experienced excessive human and economic losses as well as social and emotional impacts as a result of this problem with the first single cause of accidents in Jordan is carelessness, aggressive driving behavior is believed to be the major contributory factor in traffic accident [4]. This study, which focuses on how people perceive and are aware of road accidents in Jordan, emphasizes the necessity to investigate the behavioral, technical, infrastructural and external components of RTAs in order to identify the underlying causes of RTAs there and suggest potential containment measures.

According to a 2010 global ranking of the leading causes of mortality, RTAs came in at number 10 [5]. According to a research, RTAs will rank third in terms of causes of mortality by 2020 (Murray and Lopez, 1997; [6]). In the year 2016, 10835 RTA were recorded in Jordan with 750 causality with an average of 2.1 causality per day and 29.7 accident per day, Table 1 compare RTAs in Jordan for the years 2014,2015 and 2016 [7].

Table 1:RTAs Comparison in Jordan.

The study focuses on 4 major factors affecting RTAs
a) An adherence to behavioral norms-like paying attention to the road, fastening of seatbelts and avoiding the use of phones, over-speeding or tailgating while driving-can help in ensuring safety. These things belong in the category of behaviourally inclined RTA-related variables. The behaviourally inclined factors are responsible for up to 90% of accidents, which may further include ignorance of road signs and regulations, excessive speeding, alcoholism, drug abuse, arrogance, overconfidence [8]. The state of cars has a big impact on road safety.
A whole list of items comes under maintenance, which might include periodic checkups, visits to the service center, technical inspections and repairs, functioning of dashboard controls, seat-adjusters, seat belts and mirrors, tire specifications and conditions another technical compliance [9]. These items can be grouped as technically inclined factors associated with RTAs.
b) RTAs can be caused by poorly designed roads, faulty or inadequate traffic lights or signals, hazardous junctions, a lack of warning signs, faded or absent traffic signs or lines and oil or gravel on the road. These things can be categorized as RTArelated infrastructure-related elements that are somewhat controllable but beyond of the drivers direct control.
c) Some environmental conditions such as storms, heavy winds, rainfalls causing pot holes and bad roads create situations leading to RTAs and Animals, crossing roads which are Australia’s primary reason for RTAs [10] These elements fall within the category of externally inclined factors.

The major causes of the RTAs can be studied from the perspective of these four groups of factors to devise effective strategies

The study took the form of a public perception and opinion survey. University County in the capital Amman was selected for the Study. University County is 120.81 km² and has 743980 populations with 6158.5 person/km² according to The Jordanian Ministry of Interior website (http;//www.moi.gov.jo).

The following characteristics and factors led to the selection of University County for the study:
a) It has a high population.
b) Has high educational and cultural level.
c) The presence of many ministries, departments and official institutions, universities and colleges and many economic events.

A Sample size of 96 was estimated, using an online sample size calculator (http://www.surveysystem.com/sscalc.htm), assuming a confidence level of 95% and a confidence interval of 10. Accordingly, 100 individuals in different localities were selected for the survey. Questionnaires were used to get responses about RTAs and issues related to road safety. The questionnaires were produced in Arabic and English. Closed-ended questions which sought to obtain demographic and road safety related information were operationalized using, multiple choice and constant sum scales. The Likert scale was used to secure people’s perception on the four road safety-related factors (Behavioral, Technical, Infrastructure and External) using 16 items of interest. Eight, two and two items were used to measure the behavioral, technical, infrastructural and externally inclined factors, respectively. Although no confirmatory factor analysis was performed, the interitem reliability scores (measured using the Cronbach’s Alpha) for the four factors: behavior, technical, infrastructural and external were 0.685 (eight items), 0.762 (four items), 0.812 (two things) and 0.517 (two items) were the external values in that order. People’s suggestions for preventing RTAs were noted using the open-ended questions with a different audience.

Demographic profile of the respondents indicates that most of them belonged to the age group of 25-35 (Table 2). Male respondents made up over two thirds of the sample. As for education 38% respondents had education up to secondary level or less and 57% were single. In the beginning of the questioner, we asked the respondents do they think that traffic accidents are increasing or decreasing in which 96% agreed that the rate of traffic accidents in Jordan is increasing and only 4% felt that there has been a reduction in the accident rate. Out of all, 39% perceived excessive speed 34% violation of traffic rules and 27% poor road quality as major causes of RTAs in Jordan. In Jordan, the majority of respondents ranked the variables that contribute to rear-end collisions (RTAs) in decreasing order of importance: drivers, roads, automobiles and finally, environmental factors like rain and animal crossing.

Table 2:Profile of Sample Respondents.

People’s perception of behaviorally inclined factors: The majority of the respondents said paid full attention to the road and had knowledge of traffic rules and regulations in Jordan. They also said that they had knowledge of Jordanian roads and destinations and are aware of the causes of accidents, their effects and penalties associated with breaching of the rules. Additionally, they split about evenly when it came to using seat belts (Table 3). The individual rank of each statement (ranking inside) that underlies the behaviorally inclined criteria is also included in this Table 3. The statement that receives a score of one indicates the primary cause of RTAs. The overall ranking for a statement reflects its relative importance among factors under all the four categories. Talking on the phone while driving, over speeding and poor road quality is the cause of most road accident.to be the top three causes of RTAs in Jordan.

Table 3:People’s Perception of Behaviorally Inclined Factors.

People’s perception of technically inclined factors: That the majority of the respondents monitor their cars tires and pressure from time to time and take their car for service regularly but mixed responses were found about the prolonged use of an old car and checking the brakes regularly and take their car for service regularly (Table 4).

Table 4:People’s Perception of Technically Inclined Factors.

People’s perception of infrastructural factors: The respondents also believe that infrastructural factors such as poor design and quality of roads, ongoing construction activities and repair works lead to confusion and sometimes to severe accidents in Jordan (Table 5).

Table 5:People’s Perception of Infrastructural Inclined Factors.

People’s perception of externally inclined factors: Some of the respondents believe that natural disasters such as rain, flash floods, or storms cause road accidents in Jordan. Animals crossing the roads, which surprise the drivers all of a sudden, are uncommon cause behind RTAs (Table 6).

Table 6:People’s Perception of External Inclined Factors.

Road Traffic accidents and fatalities in Jordan are increasing which requires a serious attention and new strategy for regulations. People’s opinions about RTAs and road safety are revealed by the survey. The majority of respondents said that Jordan is seeing an increase in the number of road accidents. The majority of respondents believed that the most frequent causes of RTAs were behavioral, technical, infrastructure-related and external issues. According to the study, the primary factor triggering RTAs in Jordan is behavioral. The behavior of the drivers can be mainly controlled by increased awareness on road safety and by policy interventions on licensing, monitoring, and controlling mechanisms of vehicles and drivers. Also, the study showed that in people perception the poor road quality is a major cause for accidents which can be improved by including better issues of design, development, implementation and provision for not only road quality but also vehicles, infrastructure and disaster management policies. Among the active measures, it is important to encourage the drivers to be cautious on the roads, fastening of seatbelts while driving is very important and to observe the speed limits. Well-designed and wellmarked street humps, road markings and road signs are important to be planned within cities to enable drivers to follow the speed limits and to control their vehicles. Sharing with citizens the causes and effects of road accidents create effective awareness among them. The distractions on roads caused by the mobile phones need special measures since its one of the most cause of accidents. To target the younger generation, road safety lectures are to be given in schools, colleges and universities regarding safety rules and regulations and evolution of a safe driving culture.

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