Business Research Methods Project

AN ANALYSIS OF ROAD
ACCIDENT DEATHS IN INDIA
 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

INTRODUCTION
Road accidents have been a major cause for concern across the Indian subcontinent. In 2018
alone, the country reported around 151 thousand fatalities due to road accidents. Each
year, about three to five percent of the country’s GDP was invested in road accidents.
Notably, while India has about one percent of the world’s vehicle population, it also
accounted for about six percent of the global road traffic incidents. Almost 70 percent of the
accidents involved young Indians. They are the most unwanted thing to happen to a road
user, though they happen quite often. The most unfortunate thing is that we don't learn
from our mistakes on road. Most of the road users are quite well aware of the general rules
and safety measures while using roads but it is only the laxity on part of road users, which
cause accidents and crashes. Main cause of accidents and crashes are due to human errors.
We are elaborating some of the common behaviour of humans which results in accident.
REASONS FOR ROAD ACCIDENTS
1. Over Speeding
2. Drunken Driving
3. Distractions to Driver
4. Red Light Jumping
5. Avoiding Safety Gears like Seat belts and Helmets
6. Non-adherence to lane driving and overtaking in a wrong manner
Various national and international researchers have found these as most common behavior
of Road drivers, which leads to accidents.
Over Speeding:
Most of the fatal accidents occur due to over speeding. It is a natural psyche of humans to
excel. If given a chance man is sure to achieve infinity in speed. But when we are sharing the
road with other users we will always remain behind some or other vehicle. Increase in speed
multiplies the risk of accident and severity of injury during accident. Faster vehicles are
more prone to accident than the slower one and the severity of accident will also be more in
case of faster the severity of accident will also be more in case of faster vehicles. Higher the
speed, greater the risk. At high speed the vehicle needs greater distance to stop i.e. braking
distance. A slower vehicle comes to halt immediately while faster one takes long way to
stop and also skids a long distance due to law of notion. A vehicle moving on high speed will
have greater impact during the crash and hence will cause more injuries. The ability to judge
the forthcoming events also gets reduced while driving at faster speed which causes error in
judgment and finally a crash.
Drunken Driving:
Consumption of alcohol to celebrate any occasion is common. But when mixed with driving
it turns celebration into a misfortune. Alcohol reduces concentration. It decreases reaction
time of a human body. Limbs take more to react to the instructions of brain. It hampers
vision due to dizziness. Alcohol dampens fear and incite humans to take risks. All these
factors while driving cause accidents and many a times it proves fatal. For every increase of
0.05 blood alcohol concentration, the risk of accident doubles. Apart from alcohol many
drugs, medicines also affect the skills and concentration necessary for driving. First of all, we
recommend not to consume alcohol. But if you feel your merrymaking is not complete
without booze, do not drive under the influence of alcohol. Ask a teetotaller friend to drop
you home.
Distraction to Driver:
Though distraction while driving could be minor but it can cause major accidents.
Distractions could be outside or inside the vehicle. The major distraction now a days is
talking on mobile phone while driving. Act of talking on phone occupies major portion of
brain and the smaller part handles the driving skills. This division of brain hampers reaction
time and ability of judgement. This becomes one of the reasons of crashes. One should not
attend to telephone calls while driving. If the call is urgent one should pull out beside the
road and attend the call. Some of the distractions on road are:
1. Adjusting mirrors while driving
2. Stereo/Radio in vehicle
3. Animals on the road
4. Banners and billboards.
The driver should not be distracted due to these things and reduce speed to remain safe
during diversions and other kind of outside distractions.
Red Light jumping:
It is a common sight at road intersections that vehicles cross without caring for the light. The
main motive behind Red light jumping is saving time. The common conception is that
stopping at red signal is wastage of time and fuel. Studies have shown that traffic signals
followed properly by all drivers saves time and commuters reach destination safely and
timely. A red light jumper not only jeopardizes his life but also the safety of other road
users. This act by one driver incites other driver to attempt it and finally causes chaos at
crossing. This chaos at intersection is the main cause of traffic jams. Eventually everybody
gets late to their destinations. It has also been seen that the red light jumper crosses the
intersection with greater speed to avoid crash and challan but it hampers his ability to judge
the ongoing traffic and quite often crashes.
Avoiding Safety Gears like seat belts and helmets:
Use of seat belt in four-wheeler is now mandatory and not wearing seat belt invites penalty,
same in the case of helmets for two wheeler drivers. Wearing seat belts and helmet has
been brought under law after proven studies that these two things reduce the severity of
injury during accidents. Wearing seat belts and helmets doubles the chances of survival in a
serious accident. Safety Gears keep you intact and safe in case of accidents. Two wheeler
deaths have been drastically reduced after use of helmet has been made mandatory. One
should use safety gears of prescribed standard and tie them properly for optimum safety.
Detrimental effects of traffic on environment
1. Safety 2. Noise 3. Land Consumption 4. Air Pollution 5. Degrading the Aesthetics
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
Research Methodology is the process of systematic investigation of any management problem it
deals with research design, data collection method, sampling plan, sampling method. Research
means a scientific and systematic search for pertinent information on a specific topic. Research is a
careful investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch of knowledge.
Research comprises defining and redefining problems, formulating hypothesis or suggested solution;
collecting, organizing and evaluating data, making deductions and reaching conclusions; and at
last carefully testing the conclusions to determine whether they fit the formulating hypothesis.
Methodology is defined as the study of methods by which we gain knowledge, it deals with cognitive
processes imposed on research to the problem arising from the nature of its subject matter.

RESEARCH DESIGN:
The study is to measure effectiveness of innovative programs, and effective leadership at all levels of
the organization. Descriptive research is also called statistical research. The main goal of this type of
research is to describe the data and characteristics about what is being studied. The idea behind this
type of research is to study frequencies, averages and other statistical calculations. Although this
research is highly accurate, it does not gather the causes behind situation. Descriptive research is
mainly done when a research is mainly done when a research wants to gain a better
understanding of a topic. Descriptive research answers the questions who, what, where, when and
how.

DATA COLLECTION METHOD: SECONDARY DATA:

 Reports
 Magazine
 Books
 Journals
 Records maintained by HR department
 websites

RESEARCH PLAN:
 Data Source- Secondary Data
 Research Approach- Survey

Tool used for analysis- CHI-SQUARE TEST

HYPOTHESIS FORMULATION
Null hypothesis- The number of deaths are uniformly distributed in the span of
10 years. H0-µ=0
Alternative hypothesis- The number of deaths are not uniformly distributed
within the span of 10 years
H1-µ≠0

DATA USED

Calculations

Level of significance α= 5%
Degree of Freedom = n-1= 10
Critical Value= 18.31
Chi square stat = 7.32
SNAPSHOT OF CALCULATIONS ON EXCEL

INTERPRETATION
Since the calculated value 7.32 < 18.31 the critical value, it lies within the acceptance
region of the critical value on the left hand side.

RESULT
Hence according to the interpretation, our null hypothesis is accepted and alternative
hypothesis is rejected.

CONCLUSION
Therefore we can conclude that the number of deaths caused due to road accidents in
India over the last ten years have more or less remained constant, and have not shown
any drastic reduction or increase in their number. This can be due to factors like

 Population
 Number of vehicles purchased
 Number of driving license issued
 Proper surveillance of hit and run cases

REFERENCES