ABDUL SAMEER.P.M.
PM HOUSE
MELMURI POST
MALAPPURAM-676514
asmrpm@gmail.com 9895381473
Date: 20-11-2008
STATEMENT BY THE RESEARCHER
I, ABDUL SAMEER.P.M here by declare that this dissertation entitled “ROAD ACCIDENT SCENARIO OF KERALA: A CASE STUDY OF SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT OF ROAD ACCIDENTS ON ROAD ACCIDENT VICTIMS OF THE MALAPPURAM DISTRICT” is the record of bonafied research carried out by me under the supervision of Prf. P.T ABDUL LATHEEF reader in Economics of post graduate department of economics, Farook College, Calicut. I further declare that this has not previously formed the basis of the award of any degree, Diploma, Fellow ship or other similar tittles of recognition.
ABDUL SAMEER.P.M
Reg.No.FKAEMEC019
INTRODUCTION
`Road accident is defined as an accident which occurred or originated on a road open to public traffic causing either injury or loss of life, or damage to property, in which at least moving vehicle was involved’
Transportation occupies a high position in modern life. Advancement in all spheres of life has been to a large extent influenced by transportation. The auto mobile is doubtless one of the outstanding invention of men. It has become in alienable part of modern life and one a well imagine what life would be in present times without this wonderful invention. Business, commerce and industry, social life of people and their need to travel are all served by the motor vehicle. Transport planning is a science that seeks; to study the problem that arises in providing with transportation facilities in the urban and rural areas. Knowledge of the vehicular volume using a road network is important for understanding the efficiency at which the system at present and the general quality of service offered to the road users. Though motor vehicles have revolutionized our life and brought comfort, pleasure and convenience, they have created problems of congestions, lack of safety, problems of parking, and degeneration of the environment. Apart from these positives and negatives the spectacular growth: of the automobile as one of the most convenient mode of travel has brought in its wake a frustrating problem – the loss of lives through road accidents.
Road accident is a multy-sectoral and multy-dimensional issue. At a plenary meeting of the United Nations general assembly on 14th April 2004, a resolution co sponsored by India expressed grave concern about large number of fatalities in road crashes. The World Health Organization also declared the year 2004as a year of road safety and launched world health day during the same year with a slogan “road safety is no accident. “
Every year more than 11.3 lakh people were dies in road accidents around the world and about 10 to 15 million peoples are injured every year through out the world. About 70% of fatalities are reported in developing countries. A study by WHO showed that in 2004 accident occupies the seventh position as the major causes of death in the world.
1.2 Statement of the problem
Road accident scenario in the country is a matter of great concern, as it becomes a major socio economic and health problem. The steep growth of traffic on the Indian roads in recent years has caused a sharp increase in the incidence of traffic accidents. India has nearly seven crores motor vehicles on the road while USA has stock of more than 25 crore motor vehicles. Over 94968 people are killed annually in our country, where in the USA less than 42000 people are killed in traffic crashes. India has traffic related fatality rate (number of death per 1000 vehicles) nearly six times as high as North America and Western Europe. It ranks 12th in the world in terms of vehicle ownership (Number of vehicles per 1000 population.) but it occupies third position in the number of accident rates.
As per the recent statistics available, nearly 4.4 lakh accident take place on Indian roads every year and resulting in the death of over 9400 people and injuries to another seven lakh person. In other words 235 people die and another 1600 people get injured or hospitalized every day due to road traffic accidents. There is one accident death in every 6 minutes in India. These accidents results in huge economic loss of about 55000 crores per year to the country. It implies that accident costs are increased up to 3% our GDP.
The accident rate of kerala is the highest in the country with 15 accidents per 1000 vehicles, twice that of all India average. In Kerala 116 accidents are take place in every day, and the number of person injured or killed per day is 140 in 2006.
Accident causes considerable economic loss to the nation. Unfortunately the monetary evaluation of the accident cost is rather difficult and controversial subject. It has been observed that the developing countries have a very high accident rate when the number of accidents per 1000 vehicles is taken as the yard stick of judgment. But this fact is not clearly recognized by the politicians and administrators and there appears to be a general apathy towards the distressing situation. One of the reasons for the sorry state of affaires probably is that engineers and the economists are not able to convince the politicians and the administrators in precise monitory terms the economic loss to the society caused by the accidents and how by adopting simple and cheap solution the matters can be improved to a great extent.
In India, there has been no assured safety budget, even though considerable amount is spent on the constructions and maintenance of the road. The traffic management and regulatory measures are taken up without any scientific study of cost effectiveness. One of the reasons of high rate of accidents in developing countries is lack of adequate training for drivers and awareness campaigns to the general public. If emphasis is given to the adoption of such simply safety measures, the total accident rate can be brought down to a significant extent at a cheap cost.
The major objectives of the present study is to examine the various causes of accidents in the country such as increasing number of vehicles , inadequate and unscientific management, absence of proper training facilities, impact of accidents on the victim and his family etc.
1.3 Objectives of the study:
The scope of the study is to highlight the global scenario of road accidents. The basic objectives of our study are to evaluate the social and economic impact of accidents on road accident victims. The major objectives of our study are shorted in the following tittles.
To study the traffic facilities in the study area in general and accident rates in particular.
To trace out the number of accidents over the years in the country.
To identify various accident black spots in the study area
To evaluate the social and economic impact of accidents on the family of road accident victims
To identify the various road safety programs implemented in India.
To suggest necessary accident prevention methods that can be implemented to reduce accidents.
1.4 Methodology of the study:
The present study `The Road accident scenario of Kerala: A case study of social and economic impact of accidents on Road accident victims’ is an attempt to examine the socio - economic impacts of a road accident. The primary datas were collected from 100 samples of serious road accident victims in the Malappuram district. The address details of the road accident victims were collected from District hospital and other co-operative and private hospitals in the district. The study area was selected at Random by using the Cluster sampling method out of 14 districts in Kerala.
In addition to these, various secondary evidence were also used in this study to examine the road accident scenario. The accident records over the years with regards to India were collected. Extensive literature review was carried out on growth of road length, vehicles and accidents of kerala. Analysis of accident data’s were done with respect to time, year, type of road and type of vehicles etc. Major secondary evidences were collected from Government agencies and organizations like National Transportation Planning and Research Centre (NATPAC), Economics and statistics department, RTO office Malappuram, Traffic police department, SP Office Malappuram and DCRB Malappuram. In addition to this various issues of Economic review, EPW, information from various websites and other publication reports on accidents are also used in the study.
1.5 Limitations of the study:
The study was conducted only by taking 100 samples of serious road accident victims in the Malappuram district. Hence a generalization on the basis of the study may not be possible.
The study has inherent limitations in terms of coverage due to physical factors, time, lack of adequate published data and financial constraints.
The remedial measures proposed in the study may vary from location to location as per the site conditions, which involve mainly geometric design improvements.
