Identification of Road Traffic Accident Hotspots on Sargodha-Jhang Road (Punjab) Pakistan

Abstract

Globally, road traffic accidents must be addressed even in an advanced transportation system. However, accident frequency can be reduced by the improvement of a road network and infrastructure. The main objective of this study was to explore the various tendencies and attributes of road traffic accidents (RTAs) frequency and intensity related to weak infrastructure and non-systemized traffic patterns on a second-class inter-district road (Sargodha-Jhang) in the region of central Punjab. Secondary data of RTAs collected from Rescue 1122 for the last 3 years (2021, 2022, and 2023) and used to detect hotspots in the study area. Data analysis was carried out in SPSS 17 software by applying the mode of time and space by the latest Tucky method corresponding to the analysis of variance (ANOVA) with a fitted mean. Accident rates were found to be fatal and statistically significant at a 99% significance level with a p-value (of 0.000). The base map of the road obtained from the Survey of Pakistan published the Road Network Map of Pakistan. A total of 14 locations were pointed out using the Global Positioning System (GPS), and mapping was done in the ArcGIS 10.5 environment using on-screen digitization and geo-referencing. Some conditional and critical attributes like 50% poor road conditions and weak infrastructure, the vacuum of safety measures, the rate of accidents, and total traffic exposure contributed to the frequency and intensity of RTAs.