Page 24 - Traffic infratech magazine

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• Electric poles obstructing the injuries to motorcyclists caused as
carriage way and vulnerable a result of a crash during which
for accidents were the motorcyclist was not wearing a
removed with the help of helmet, is a human-crash problem.
electricity department. While poor intersection layouts
that lead to the occurrence of
Data gathering crashes are an infrastructure-pre-
eco-system crash problem.
Conventionally, road accidents The Haddon Matrix is a powerful
are attributed to driver error as the concept which JP Research India
main problem. Due to this type of crash investigators use for examining
analysis, the contribution of human every crash. The objective of their
errors is grossly exaggerated scientific crash investigations is to
without considering the role of determine the failures, in each of who understand the importance
vehicle and environmental factors these nine cells, which led to the of crash data and are willing to
in an accident and injury causation occurrence of the crash and the support the data collection work.
in developing countries. Even in resulting injuries. By finding out the Many still think it is impossible to
the US, the UK, Germany, Sweden failures of a good number of crashes, conduct crash investigations in
and other countries, driver error is it is possible to identify the areas of India. But our experience has been
the major reason for crashes. So priority, in each of the nine cells, that the police and other local
how do they manage to reduce where planned interventions and entities dedicated to public safety
fatalities and crashes? show great interest and provide
investments will result in targeted
To understand the entire reduction of fatalities and injuries. good co-operation for undertaking
ecosystem involved in a crash, Ravishankar Rajaraman, such studies. Over the past decade,
an important concept that every Technical Director, JP Research we have successfully engaged
person working towards road police, road engineers, government
safety should know is the Haddon India Pvt Ltd explained, “To collect agencies, NGOs and other stake
Matrix. This is the fundamental good quality crash data, the core holders to work together and use
concept that is being used by all problem is finding organizations data-driven approaches to improve
countries that have successfully and government agencies in India road safety.
reduced fatalities. Created by Dr.
William Haddon Jr., who is widely
regarded as the father of modern
injury epidemiology, the Haddon
Matrix is a scientifically driven
approach for understanding how
injuries occur in road accidents
and developing strategies for
intervention. Every crash has three
main factors – human, vehicle and
infrastructure – and they need
to be examined over three-time
phases – pre-crash, crash and
post-crash. These three factors
(columns) and three-time phases
(rows) together form the Haddon
Matrix. Each cell of the Haddon
Matrix identifies a factor and a
time-phase and what elements
go into it. For example, head

24 June-July ’19 / TrafficInfraTech www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com