Spatiotemporal Characteristics of Road Traffic Accidents in Dire Dawa City, Ethiopia

摘要

Road traffic accidents (RTA) are one of the major public health issues in Ethiopia and a big challenge for the government to tackle. This study aims to find out the spatiotemporal distribution of RTAs in the Dire Dawa city of Ethiopia and identify the major factors contributing to the RTAs. Locations of the black-spots are identified using the critical accident rate method. RTA data between 2012 and 2017 for 42 road sections and junctions were collected from primary and secondary sources. The findings showed that the majority of RTAs that occurred in the city were caused by driver-induced errors that coincided with the peak hours of the day. Furthermore, nine black-spot locations and most of the RTAs were found to have occurred near the office and market areas. The study recommended that more efforts should be made to improve the road infrastructure and to influence the road-user behavior through introducing road safety habits.