FATAL AND INJURY CRASHES RESULTING FROM ROADSIDE HAZARDS

This paper describes how, in 2001, road crash were the fifth major cause of deaths in Thailand, ranking below were only cancer, accidents and poisoning, heart diseases, hypertension and celebrovascular diseases. This paper describes the first attempt in Thailand to investigate roadside crashes using crash data collected by the Department of Highways. It aims to quantify the magnitude and determine the characteristics of the problem and recommend strategies for improving the roadside safety of highways. However, in provincial areas of Thailand, the most recent hospital records (1999-2001) show road crashes to be the leading cause of deaths second only to cerebrovascular diseases. In 2001, the national road tolls stood at 11,652 resulting from 77,616 road crashes. Of these, 10,133 deaths occurred in regional areas outside Bangkok as a result of 31,905 crashes, while only 1,519 people died from 45,711 crashes thanks to the very slow traffic speed in Bangkok. Roadside crashes form a significant portion of road crashes on highways under the jurisdiction of the Department of Highways. During 1997 - 2001 there were 71,715 crashes on DOH highways of these 24,810 or 35% were roadside accidents resulting in 3,506 deaths or about 30% of highway deaths and 20,867 injuries or about 36%. Investigation of crash data of 4 major highways in the province of Songkhla in the south of Thailand reveals that roadside crashes constitute between 56-67 % of all crashes on these highways between 1997-2000, with the fatalities ranging from 25-44 % of all fatalities on the 4 highways. Roadside crashes involve run off the road and rollover accidents or run off the road and hit roadside hazards. With full-grown and newly planted trees on roadsides both left and right where they were planted on the depressed median, it is imperative that these man-made future and present roadside hazards be highlighted. The potential dangers posed by the old style reinforced concrete guideposts, kilometer posts and the unprotected electricity poles are obvious and typical of roadside objects hit.