Kitinapa Napakorn.. Trends and factors related to road traffic fatal crash in Thailand using police databases. Master's Degree(Tropical Medicine). Mahidol University. Mahidol University Library and Knowledge Center. : Mahidol University, 2005.
Trends and factors related to road traffic fatal crash in Thailand using police databases
Abstract:
A cross-sectional study was conducted to identify injury and death rate trends among the provinces of Thailand, and factors related to fatal crashes on motorways. Secondary data from the Police Information System center were collected from January 1995 to December 2002, and 205 crashes on motorways were collected from January to December 2002 including 638 motorway crashes in the fiscal year 2004. The police data were described in terms of trends of deaths and injuries per 10,000 vehicles, including the trends of factors related to road traffic accidents. Motorway data were used to identify the concentrations of crashes and analyzed for frequency distribution of factors related to injury crashes. The result of the study revealed that the death and injury rates had declined during the end of the financial bubble and the economic crisis (1995-2000) and had increased during the economic recovery (2000-2002). For related factors, minor trends of decrease were found for males who died, were severely or mildly injured. There were minor trends of increase in all three indicators for females. For all indicators of injury severity, males were higher than females. For cause of accident, there was a minor trend of decrease for speeding, and a minor trend for increased drunk driving, and no trend for drowsy driving. For motorcycles, there was a minor trend of increase, whereas private car and truck involvement in road traffic accidents had minor trends of decline. For accident-prone areas on motorways, crash clusters were found on roadsurface- improved areas, temporary toll areas, nearby junction areas and interchange areas. For factors related to injury crashes, the result showed that the speeding driver in the period midnight to 07.59hr on motorway route 7, in the straight portion with no intersection or bridge in April, was more prone to a fatal crash without several and heavy vehicle involvement than the other groups. The causes and months of accident were statistically significantly associated with injury crash. From the result of the study, recommendations include improving the pattern of recording of police officers, and strengthening mobile police patrol units.