Road Traffic Accidents (RTAs) in Bahawalpur City, Pakistan: A Comparative Injury Analysis
A Comparative Injury Study in RTAs
Abstract
Road traffic accidents (RTAs) hold a top and rising contributor to the regional and global casualties and deaths particularly in countries like Pakistan. The main objective of this research was make a comparison of the RTAs took place in Tehsil Bahawalpur city and to identify the main causes and victims during 2015-2019. Data is collected from Punjab rescue emergency service 1122 Bahawalpur and manipulated and re-arranged as per objective of the study. It is analyzed in SPSS 17 by applying descriptive statistics and Chi-square Test as an inferential statistics to find out the relationship of RTAs with selected variables. Results showed that, during the last few years the numbers of road traffic accidents are increased. The root causes of RTAs observed were including care lessness of drivers (42.22% and 43.10% in 2015 and 2019 respectively) over speeding (39.92% and 33.89% in 2015 and 2019 respectively) over taking and violation of traffic rules. Most of the victims in RTAs were drivers (32.89% and 34.91% in 2015 and 2019 respectively). The youngsters (aging 21-30) were the leading victims of 1,848 (29.14%) in 2015 to 2,410 (28.69%) in 2019 due to the ever increasing registrations of the motor bikes as the main source of RTAs (69.05% and 72.91% in 2015 and 2019 respectively). Most of the RTAs caused fractures and minor injuries (33.39% and 33.78% in 2015 and 2019 respectively). Chi-square results also show that there is close association between the care lessness and the bike accidents (P-value > 0.05). Lastly, the spatial hotspots identification maps of RTAs done with the aid of GIS visualize that severe accidents were occurred on cross roads, chowks and inter-city roads i.e. Hasilpur road, Yazman road, Ahmadpur road others. Lastly, it is hoped that this research would be beneficial for the society in many ways from understanding of the RTAs nature to adopting preventive measures.
