Teik Hua Law

Factors associated with the relationship between motorcycle deaths and economic growth

This paper examines the Kuznets curve relationship for motorcycle deaths. The Kuznets curve describes the inverted U-shape relationship between economic development and, in this case, motorcycle deaths. In early stages of development we expect deaths to increase with increasing motorization. Eventually deaths decrease as technical, policy and political institutions respond to demands for increased safety. We examine this effect as well as some of the factors which might explain the Kuznets relationship: in particular motorcycle helmet laws, medical care and technology improvements, and variables representing the quality of political institutions. We apply a fixed effects negative binomial regression analysis on a panel of 25 countries covering the period 1970-1999. Our results broadly suggest that implementation of road safety regulation, improvement in the quality of political institutions, and medical care and technology developments have contributed to reduced motorcycle deaths.

Impact of the effect of economic crisis and the targeted motorcycle safety programme on motorcycle-related accidents, injuries and fatalities in Malaysia

In 1997, a Motorcycle Safety Programme (MSP) was introduced to address the motorcycle-related accident problem. The MSP was specifically targeted at motorcyclists. In addition to the MSP, the recent economic recession has significantly contributed to a reduction of traffic-related incidents. This paper examines the effects of the recent economic crisis and the MSP on motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia. The autocorrelation integrated moving average model with transfer function was used to evaluate the overall effects of the interventions. The variables used in developing the model were gross domestic product and MSPs. The analysis found a 25% reduction in the number of motorcycle-related accidents, a 27% reduction in motorcycle casualties and a 38% reduction in motorcycle fatalities after the implementation of MSP. Findings indicate that the MSP has been one of the effective measures in reducing motorcycle safety problems in Malaysia. Apart from that, the performance of the countrys economy was also found to be significant in explaining the number of motorcycle-related accidents, casualties and fatalities in Malaysia.

Crashes with roadside objects along motorcycle lanes in Malaysia

Exclusive motorcycle lanes were introduced in Malaysia in the 1980s to reduce motorcyclist fatalities and they seem to be effective. However, no design guide has yet been developed for designing safer exclusive motorcycle lanes. The construction of Malaysian exclusive motorcycle lanes is based on the design criteria for cycle tracks [6], which does not suit the fast travelling and high volume of motorcycles along the exclusive lanes. According to the collected accident data, frequent motorcycle crashes still occur on exclusive motorcycle lanes. The present study found that roadside objects are one of the main contributing factors to motorcyclist fatalities. As a standard practice, guardrails have been planted along highways and roads. The design engineer of exclusive motorcycle lanes utilised the same practice and planted standard guardrails along exclusive motorcycle lanes. The suitability and the importance of the standard guardrail system as protection agent have been investigated and supported by real-world crash data. The catchment areas of the study were the top two longest exclusive motorcycle lanes in Malaysia: the exclusive motorcycle lanes along Federal Highway F0002 and the exclusive motorcycle lane along Shah Alam Expressway. Crash cases collected over 4½-year period were from the accident database of the authorities. A total number of 107 cases were recorded as motorcycle crashes involving roadside objects. Guardrails have been identified as the most struck object, representing 32.7% of all roadside object-related motorcycle crashes along exclusive motorcycle lanes. An odds ratio analysis has found that narrow surface objects contribute to higher fatality rate than guardrails. However, guardrails still contribute 23.5% of all fatal roadside object-related crashes and were found to be 1.7 times more likely to cause serious injury to motorcyclists than non-object-related motorcycle crashes. These findings support that guardrails are suitable to be used as a protection agent for the motorcyclists using the exclusive motorcycle lanes. However, further research and enhancements on the guardrail design system and material type are needed to have safer exclusive motorcycle lanes.

Factors related to seatbelt-wearing among rear-seat passengers in Malaysia

The benefit of wearing a rear seatbelt in reducing the risk of motor vehicle crash-related fatalities and injuries has been well documented in previous studies. Wearing a seatbelt not only reduces the risk of injury to rear-seat passengers, but also reduces the risk of injury to front-seat occupant who could be crushed by unbelted rear-seat passengers in a motor vehicle crash. Despite the benefits of wearing a rear seatbelt, its rate of use in Malaysia is generally low. The objective of this study was to identify factors that are associated with the wearing of a seatbelt among rear-seat passengers in Malaysia. Multinomial logistic regression analysis of the results of a questionnaire survey of 1651 rear-seat passengers revealed that rear-seat passengers who were younger, male, single and less educated and who had a perception of a low level of legislation enforcement, a lower risk-aversion and less driving experience (only for passengers who are also drivers) were less likely to wear a rear seatbelt. There was also a significant positive correlation between driver seatbelt and rear seatbelt-wearing behaviour. This implies that, in regards to seatbelt-wearing behaviour, drivers are more likely to adopt the same seatbelt-wearing behaviour when travelling as rear-seat passengers as they do when driving. These findings are crucial to the development of new interventions to increase the compliance rate of wearing a rear seatbelt.

THE MALAYSIAN GOVERNMENT'S ROAD ACCIDENT DEATH REDUCTION TARGET FOR YEAR 2010

Objective: This paper makes a projection of the vehicle ownership rate to the year 2010 and to use this projection to predict road accident deaths in year 2010. The projection served as an indicator for the Malaysian government to achieve a 4 road accident deaths per 10,000 vehicles safety target in year 2010. Method: The study included the prediction of vehicle ownership and the analysis of past trends in the road accident death rate. Gompertz growth model was used to project vehicle ownership and the prediction of road accident death rate was done using Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) model with transfer noise function. Results and Conclusions: The Gompertz model predicted that vehicle ownership would be equal to 0.4409 by the year 2010. The road accident death rate is projected to decrease to 4.22 in year 2010, at an average decline rate of 2.14% per annum. This result suggests that a minimum 2.18% reduction per annum is required to achieve the national target in year 2010.

SEAT BELT USE AMONG CAR USERS IN MALAYSIA

The car is the second (40%) most common mode of transportation in Malaysia. In terms of fatal road accidents, car drivers constitute about 9.0% and passengers 13.6% of fatalities. The major cause of car occupants fatality in such accidents is head injuries, which consist of more than half (56.4%) of the fatalities. Thus restraining the head and body, the initial position is the most important injury control strategy for car users. The use of seat belts was deemed one of the most effective ways to reduce road accident fatalities in Malaysia and consequently the mandatory seat belt law was enforced in the early seventies. Therefore, a study on factors influencing the compliance behaviour of seat belt use among cars is needed as to date no such research has been undertaken in Malaysia. A questionnaire study was carried out in Selangor, Malaysia on the compliance behaviour of car occupants in relation to seat belt use. A total of 237 respondents were interviewed and the data analysed using logistic regression method. Six variables were found to be significant at 5 percent level (p less than 0.05): seating position, location of travel, education level, speeding, night-time driving and enforcement. Compliance with the seat belt law was higher among drivers, educated car users, in the presence of enforcement activities, travelling in city-center areas and car users with a positive attitude towards the risks of speeding and night driving.

Factors associated with the enactment of safety belt and motorcycle helmet laws

It has been shown that road safety laws, such as motorcycle helmet and safety belt laws, have a significant effect in reducing road fatalities. Although an expanding body of literature has documented the effects of these laws on road safety, it remains unclear which factors influence the likelihood that these laws are enacted. This study attempts to identify the factors that influence the decision to enact safety belt and motorcycle helmet laws. Using panel data from 31 countries between 1963 and 2002, our results reveal that increased democracy, education level, per capita income, political stability, and more equitable income distribution within a country are associated with the enactment of road safety laws.

Role of sensory and cognitive conspicuity in the prevention of collisions between motorcycles and trucks at T-intersections

Motorcyclists are particularly vulnerable to injury in crashes with heavy vehicles due to substantial differences in vehicle mass, the degree of protection and speed. There is a considerable difference in height between motorcycles and trucks; motorcycles are viewed by truck drivers from downward angles, and shorter distances between them mean steeper downward angles. Hence, we anticipated that the effects of motorcycle conspicuity treatments would be different for truck drivers. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the effects of motorcycle conspicuity treatments on the identification and detection of motorcycles by truck drivers. Two complementary experiments were performed; the first experiment assessed the impact of motorcycle sensory conspicuity on the ability of un-alerted truck drivers to detect motorcycles, and the second experiment assessed the motorcycle cognitive conspicuity to alerted truck drivers. The sensory conspicuity was measured in terms of motorcycle detection rates by un-alerted truck drivers when they were not anticipating a motorcycle within a realistic driving scene, while the cognitive conspicuity was determined by the time taken by alerted truck drivers to actively search for a motorcycle. In the first experiment, the participants were presented with 10 pictures and were instructed to report the kinds of vehicles that were presented in the pictures. Each picture was shown to the participants for 600ms. In the second experiment, the participants were presented with the same set of pictures and were instructed to respond by clicking the right button on a mouse as soon as they detected a motorcycle in the picture. The results indicate that the motorcycle detection rate increases, and the response time to search for a motorcycle decreases, as the distance between the targeted motorcycle and the viewer decreases. This is true regardless of the type of conspicuity treatment used. The use of daytime running headlights (DRH) was found to increase the detection rate and the identification of a motorcycle by a truck driver at a farther distance, but effect deteriorates as the distance decreases. The results show that the detection rate and the identification of a motorcyclist wearing a black helmet with a reflective sticker increases as the distance between the motorcycle and the truck decreases. We also found that a motorcyclist wearing a white helmet and a white outfit is more identifiable and detectable at both shorter and longer distances. In conclusion, although this study provides evidence that the use of appropriate conspicuity treatments enhances motorcycle conspicuity to truck drivers, we suggest that more attention should be paid to the effect of background environment on motorcycle conspicuity.

Development of composite road environment safety index

abstract This study aims to develop a road safety index that combines selected road environmental characteristics in Malaysia. Firstly, 14 indicators that generally portray the Malaysian road environments were selected. Then, the final list of specific indicators for each road network was developed. The indicators were derived based on the specific criteria such as the objectives, method of measurement, quality, and expected outcomes of the indicators that may improve the overall road safety of the Malaysian trunk roads. The Malaysian Federal Road 12 was selected as the study area to assess the applicability of the theory. By employing the principal component analysis, four components were obtained and from the statistical weightage of the indicator in each component, the composite indexes were calculated. The results showed that the sections with low number of reported crashes were not necessarily safe for road users. Instead, poor road environment conditions may be highly hazardous to road users. The presence of heavy vehicles and motorcycles was found to be the main risk factor of crash occurrences on this road. Overall, the crash data may be supplemented with another proactive method in order to get a broader picture of the poor road sections.

Locating Problematic Road Sections: Comparisons between Crash Data and Composite Index Method

Aware on the importance of upgrading and maintaining the safety level of existing road network, several attempts on localizing problematic road areas have been made. In current practice, the identification of those problematic sections was recognized based on the road’s safety level and one of the most common and acceptable method is by using crash data of the particular road network as a starting point for further actions. However, the information provided by crash data is far from providing good and broad pictures of the factors leading to crash. These circumstances have bringing out the needs to have another road safety indicator that can extensively describes actual situations at problematic road areas as well as can be used as a basis for further maintenance works. By focusing on the environment aspect of the roads, fourteen road environment indicators were chosen based on their abilities to portrayed current road environment conditions and its potential in triggering road traffic crashes. Data of these indicators were collected by means of naturalistic driving method within 80 km length road of Federal Road 2 connecting Kuantan and Maran Town in Pahang State. Composite road environment risk index was developed using these data where combination of risk generated from these environments aspects were evaluated and used in localizing problematic road sections. Apart from that, the outcomes were also used as basis in planning for road improvement plans. The development of composite road environment risk index as a proactive method in defining poor sections has proved to be very useful in identifications of problematic road sections requiring urgent road improvement works especially when crash data is not available or in poor quality.