Article

Bhasker Vijaykumar Bhatt, Bhaikaka Centre for Human Settlements

A road crash refers to any accident involving of at least one road vehicle, occurring on the road open to public transit using different modes. Intentional acts (terrorism, war) and natural disasters are excluded. Road crashes will be acquiring higher rank among non-natural deaths around the globe. The fatalities in urban road crash incur major economic, social and cultural loss to the society. Present work aims to evaluate these losses by computing an ‘Urban Fatality Impact parameter(s)’ that would indicate the severity of the fatalities for the area based on different variables involved. The research builds on a study carried out in the Surat city. The city has the population of about 5 million and spread of the urban area of about 327 km2. Encompassing road lengths of more than 2500 km. The records of road crash for past ten years under six police station administered areas were examined. The “Fatality Impact Index” may have itself several applications like identification of most vulnerable cities for road traffic injuries and fatality, most required improvement locations, so that the development of transit facilities give an overall high value of return and would also diminish the losses due to road crashes. The present work is based on a study carried out to understand the fatality and road crash occurring on the streets of Surat – specific attention is given for cases of Varachha and Salabatpura police station areas. The initial details include over understanding these areas, road inventories, type of accidents through records of police stations and analysis thereof. In the next course of work, a collection of further data and analysis for different police station limits would be carried out to attain the aim of developing an Index for various areas of Surat as well as of the city.