Causes of Road Accident

Introduction

Many have lost both there loved ones and money through accident. What is accident? An accident is an unfortunate incidence that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally. Road accident is an unexpected incidence that occurs on roads which may result to sustenance of injury or lost of lives. Many lives have been lost since the development in technology which resulted to the manufacturing of vehicles, which are machine that enable works to be done more easily. The question is: what are the causes of the road accidents all over the world?

How many lives were lost in road accident? According to World Health Organization (WHO) report, approximately 1.24 Million persons died on road accident in 2010. The statistics proves that one person dies in road accident every 25 seconds. According to the same source, in 2009, twelve percent of all the deaths in road accidents in the United States of America claimed the lives of the pedestrians. In most cases, people are afraid to travel by road because of the danger in transportation by road. Many who lost their loved ones through road accidents start crying whenever they remember the ugly incidence. The truth remains that the rate at which it happens is decreasing in some areas while it is of high increase in some other areas. Notwithstanding that this occurrence is bad; we cannot stop making use of vehicles in solving our individual problems and in saving our time.

Middle-income countries have the highest fatal road accidents of about 20.1% per 100,000 annually. Also, report from WHO shows that Eritrea is a country that has the highest road accident in the world. The country incurs an estimate of 48.4% deaths per 100,000 fatalities each year.

Road accident is a global challenge involving countries of the world. There are many reported cases of accidents that claimed lives of people. A recent example is the one that recently happened in Arizona, United States. It was reported in US news as thus: "Four people were killed when a Dallas Cowboys bus collided with a van in Arizona. Arizona Department of Public Safety spokesman Quentin Mehr says all the fatalities in the Sunday crash were passengers in the van."

In Nigeria, many cases of fetal car accidents have been reported. Recent is the one reported in Vanguard News in June 4, 2016. "No fewer than five adults and four children were yesterday confirmed dead, after a commercial bus and an articulated truck collided in Fadeyi axis of Lagos State. Officials of the Emergency Response Team, ERT disclosed to Vanguard that five adult (4 male and 1 female) and 4 children( 2 male, 2 female), died at the spot."

In China, road deaths as a result of accidents is high though it has reduced in the recent time. This have been officially documented by the body in charge. The Chinese ministry of transport says the number of road deaths in the country fell from 104,000 in 2003 to 60,000 in 2012 - or from about 300 fatalities a day to less than 200.

In absolute terms, the UK, along with Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, are the four safest EU countries for road users. They are joined by Norway in having a level of road mortality lower than 40 deaths per million inhabitants.

However, an analysis of the road safety management and plans of European countries ranks the UK within the bottom 25 per cent of 29 European countries in terms of its vision for cutting death and injury on the road network in future (RAC Foundation 2013).

In absolute terms, the UK, along with Sweden, the Netherlands and Denmark, are the four safest EU countries for road users. They are joined by Norway in having a level of road mortality lower than 40 deaths per million inhabitants.

However, an analysis of the road safety management and plans of European countries ranks the UK within the bottom 25 per cent of 29 European countries in terms of its vision for cutting death and injury on the road network in future.

- See more at: http://www.racfoundation.org/motoring-faqs/safety#a4

I believe that the scientists, governments and none governmental organizations are working on daily basis to reduced or stop road accidents involving vehicles like cars and motorcycles, but as it stands now, road accident is still gaining ground in most countries of the world. Many get involved in accidents because they lack idea of the importance of training before driving. Based on this, the major causes of road accidents are intoxication, carelessness, over speeding, depressions, lack of experience and bad roads.

What shall it profit any man to empty everything in a bottle and have himself put in a mess because of what he has taken. Drinking is good but getting drunk is bad habit and a sign of irresponsibility. No matter how sweet and interesting anything is, too much of it becomes bad. In the same vein, no matter how sweet a drink is, taking too much of it is bad. It is a bad habit and any fellow who takes part in it is seen as a person that lacks good family and moral training.

When a driver or car owner gets drunk and starts driving, he is likely to crash in road accident. The reason is because his eyes are no longer ‘clear’ at that moment. A big rock standing before him at that moment may appear as a loaf of bread in his eyes. He may even think of coming out of his car to pick the ‘bread’ for dinner and continue with his driving, but concludes to smash it because he is on high speed and full of joy because he had drink enough. The next thing is his death or if he is lucky enough finds himself in a hospital because he was trying to smash the ‘bread’ as he thought in his mind.

Drinking or taking of drugs before driving have wasted a lot of the blood of the innocent souls. Many have been made to dwell in ocean of poverty, fatherless and others motherless because of drug taking before driving. When a driver takes hard drugs before driving, his mentality changes and he takes this world as nothing. This will make him to drive in any direction he wishes and kept on killing innocent people.

Some road accidents are due to the carelessness of the car users. Carelessness is the behaviour of not giving required attentions to certain things. Do you know that there are some car owners that have used their cars for six months or a year without checking the important parts to see if they could fix some things up or take it to mechanic shops for servicing? This lack of maintenance often results to failing of break by vehicles. If the incidence occurs close to the market place, many lives will be condemned.

Also, some drivers do not take their driving function as a serious business whenever they are driving from place to place. They take it as a normal thing which anybody can do, both the small and the big. The idea of “nothing is happening that driving is normal thing” gets them entangled in accident in a slight mistake.

When the speed of any vehicle in motion crosses the standard of speed expected from speedometer, it becomes over speed. This has killed many pedestrians before their time of death. When a driver is on high speed, it will be hard for him to control the steering when any person wants to cross the road or when the car he follows applies breaks because of bumps. Again, over speeding will make a car user to smash cars of others due to the fact that it will be hard for him to control the car at that moment. The sad news is that the over-speeding driver may be unemployed or earn little, and hence unable to repair the car he smashes.

Whether driver or a car owner, it is advisable to drive at standard speed. This will make them to easily have control of the car. Think of how it will be when a pupil who was dismissed from the school for the day wants to cross the expressway that leads to the parent’s home and a car was coming with over speed. How do you think the incidence will be when the poor child is already at the middle of the road? Over speed is to be avoided by any user of any kind of vehicle.

Many who are driving different kinds of car do not have any good experience on how to handle them. How many drivers and car owners have drivers license. People drive car from one place to another without having any license that certifies them as good drivers. Some of the drivers in the modern world did not even attend any driving school before handling cars.

Let me make some points on those that drive trucks. These are big vehicles that are not meant to be handled by any kind of person. It is a pity that many handle these trucks without undergoing thorough training on how to handle such a big vehicle. This is the reason why they kill many persons as if they are killing chickens whenever they make a slight mistake. But, if the person that handles the car steering of that kind is trained, he will know how to handle it and drive carefully. Inexperienced drivers are not expected to handle any car whether big, small or miniature.

At times, a depressed man is as good as a senseless person. It is dependent on the level of depression and what results to it. Any man that is seriously depressed is not expected to handle any vehicle's key. Handling of any vehicle's key whether it is that of a car or motorcycle can make him kill himself or the masses on the way. His mind may leave during driving thereby resulting to serious accident. If a man is facing a serious problem at a moment which affects his brain, he is not allowed to handle either motorcycle or car keys.

Many things can result to depressions. One of the reasons is loss of a beloved person. A man that lost the beloved wife may be thinking about her without knowing when he crashes into accident. Again, maybe a man lost his job and has been unemployed for a long period of time, he may be thinking about his unemployment without knowing when he hits another car(s).

In most African regions, bad roads are one of the capital causes of road accidents. Does it mean that governments of this region do not issue enough money for road project? Most of the leaders of this continent are too greedy and that makes them to seek for their own selfish interest and neglect the roads they are to construct to spare the lives of the people.

When there are good road networks in certain country that lack good road channels, the accidents caused by bad roads will stop. Again, any road that is awarded by the government is to be well implemented. A Team may be set to monitor the construction of the road to limit the rate of road accident of any kind. This will help those that are constructing the roads to be fast in doing the job assigned to them.

This is another cause of road accident in many parts of the world. This has been proven by many road regulating groups all over the world. An example is found in the documentation of Federal Road Society Corps (FRSC) of Nigeria. According to the statistics from Federal Road Society Corps (FRSC), 15 percent of accidents in the major cities of Nigeria are caused by use of cell phones. Phones are not bad but their use have been abused by car owners and drivers while driving.

Also, many modern cars found in the market have video players installed in them. Though this gives comfort and at the same time shows the advancement in technology, it sometimes takes the attention of the drivers while driving and in the course of this results to accidents.

Man is made to control cars but cars are now controlling man. What a bitter occurrence.

Men have die, blood have been shed and some men are likely to die on road accidents. All men must die but what is more important is not to die out of carelessness like through road accident. The major causes of road accident were discussed on this piece of write-up. Any who makes use of vehicle is advised to drive well and prevent his or herself from accident. If any person incurred accidents due to his carelessness, he hurts himself and other victims. So to avoid this, avoid the major causes of road accidents as discussed on this page. If you are a driver or the one being carried in any car, care must be ensured to avoid causing road accident.

• 2010 World Health Organization report on traffic death

• David Mais (2015), Seat belt and mobile phone use surveys: England and Scotland, 2014, Department of Transport, Media: 020 7944 6898, Public: 020 7944 6595

• Mayor Road Safety (2013), Causes of Road Accidents, Mayo County Council Aras an Chontae The Mall Castlebar Co. Mayo

• John Hall (2014), Crash victims miraculously survive (and give the thumbs up) after their car is crushed flat by a lorry's shipping container load, Mail Online Publication, UK

• RAC Foundation (2013), Road Safety: A review of UK and European data, RAC Foundation Publication, Registered Charity No: 1002705 89-91, Pall Mall, London, SW1Y 5HS.