Increasingly, developing countries are becoming aware of their serious road accident problem and a growing number of them are introducing programmes aimed at reducing and preventing accidents. Egypt, Pakistan and Ghana have recently improved their road accident data base systems in collaboration with the TRRL and this work was followed up with the introduction of low-cost engineering improvements schemes and joint studies to evaluate their effectiveness. In Egypt, the countermeasures were aimed at improving hazardous locations on a major intercity road where problems included 'nose-to-tail', night time and tyre burst accidents. In Pakistan and Ghana, attention was focused on improving pedestrian safety and new designs of raised pedestrian crossings are being tested. To evaluate the improvements, accident data are being monitored and traffic and road user behaviour data have been collected before implementation at selected sites and also at 'control' sites. This paper describes the improvement and evaluation approaches used and illustrates some of the principles recommended in the Guide "Towards safer roads in developing countries" (see IRRD 843648) published by TRRL.
Samenvatting