A Thesis on Determinants of Road Traffic Accident in Hadiya Zone: The Case of Hosanna Town

Abstract

Road traffic accidents are outcomes of several factors associated with the traffic system. And the major ones are, pedestrians, unsafe road environments, derivers and vehicles. The socio-economic costs of traffic accident includes deaths, disabilities, injuries and property loss. The prevalence of road traffic accident has increased continuously in alarming rate . Also it is a serious issue and great homework in developing countries like Ethiopia. The aim of this study was to identify the major determinants of the traffic accidents and to discuss its consequences thereby to fill the knowledge gap in Hosanna Town, Hadiya Zone. The primary investigator used primary and secondary data sources for this research. The primary data was collected from 298 households’ survey and was analyzed by employing stat and SPSS. Qualitative data was also gathered from focus group discussion and key informants interview to investigate the extent of accident and related impacts. Traffic accident documents, who served as secondary data sources, were also reviewed, compiled, organized, summarized and interpreted in light of the research objective. For this research binary logistic regression model was used to analyze the relationship between multiple explanatory, categorical variables. The study revealed that major factors behind road traffic accident were: Motor Cycle, Bajaj Motor, Minibus-taxies, Carts, Pedestrians, Age of the victims, Gender of the Victims, Deriving Experience, Helmet Use, Deriving Speed (at the time of accident), Availability of Multi-directional Way, Presence of Institutions or Organizations in the area of accident, Pedestrian Sideway, and Enforcement or Exercising the Law was significant. It was concluded from the research that it needs building pedestrians lane, alternative way for carts, assigning car parking space, broaden road safety education in regular class, controlling the level of implementation of the existing traffic law, equipping and empowering responsible sectors of road safety, strengthening coordination between responsible sectors and stockholders as well as using minibus-taxies were forwarded as to how to reduce the phenomenon of traffic accidents and to minimize its consequences in case of Hosanna town.