Risk perception and practice towards road traffic safety among medical students

Abstract

Road traffic injuries are a major but ignored epidemic, requiring concrete efforts for effective and sustainable prevention to overcome the social, economic and health implications. The WHO's Global status report on road safety 2015 indicates that worldwide the total number of road traffic deaths has plateaued at 1.25 million per year, with the highest road traffic fatality rates in low-income countries. Urgent action is needed to achieve the determined target for road safety reflected in the newly adopted 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (goal 3 & 11) and halving the global number of deaths and injuries from road traffic crashes by 2020. 1 India a middle income country with a population of more than a billion witnessed 31.3% of the road traffic deaths among 15 to 29 years individuals in the year 2011 as reported by national crime records bureau (NCRB). 2 Refusal to follow traffic rules, drunken driving and over speeding are main reasons for road accidents. Therefore, a study was carried out with an aim to assess the knowledge, perception and practices by adolescents while driving a ABSTRACT Background: Road traffic injuries are a major but neglected epidemic. WHO has declared road traffic accidents (RTA) as the number one cause of death among those aged 15-29 years. India has witnessed 31.3% of the road traffic deaths among 15 to 29 years individuals in the year 2011 as reported by national crime records bureau. This study is aimed to learn and study risk perception and practice of road safety measures among medical students. Methods: A Cross-sectional study was conducted among medical students with an objective A 297 M.B.B.S. students were selected by convenient sampling technique. The study period was May-August, 2016. The information collected was analysed using SPSS version 16 & Microsoft excels 2007 software. Results: Majority of boys (82% and 98%) and girls (55% & 66%) had a satisfactory understanding of traffic rules and traffic signs & signals, respectively. While exploring on the helmet use, only 36% of girls were aware of its importance. About the factors responsible for the crash severity, participants showed a lesser concern to the seat-belts & child restraints (59% boys and 39% girls). Notably only 52% of male participants were in view that alcohol consumption sometimes increases the severity while driving. Conclusions: Abidance to road safety was not found satisfactory. Adequate interventions and reorientation training towards road safety need to be introduced among young drivers.

Exploring the Knowledge and Attitude of the Taxi Drivers in the Field of Traffic Rules and Regulations

“…Regarding the minimum and maximum scores in knowledge and attitude, it can be said that the taxi drivers in the city of Shiraz had a moderate level of knowledge and attitude. This finding was in agreement with the results of the studies of Redhwan and Karim in Malaysia [ 23 ], al-Dahrani et al in Saudi Arabia [ 24 ], and Shams et al in Tehran [ 25 ]. However, it was not consistent according to the results of Riaz and Shahid [ 26 ], and a study by Bachani et al in Kambia [ 27 ].…”

Validation of Computational-Rabi’s Driver Training Model for Prime Decision-Making

“…The higher mean value obtained from the driving knowledge indicated that the experimental group participants had a clear understanding of traffic rules, traffic signs and signals, that minimized the risk of accident. This evidence was consistent with the argument of [21] that abiding by traffic rules could lead to less or no accident. Therefore, training of drivers is important for prime decision making, in particular during emergency.…”

A study on knowledge and practice of road safety among medical students of S.N. Medical College, Karnataka

“…But study by Zaidi et al 4.73% got injured in past. 6 In this study only 43 (47.8%) knew the legal limit of alcohol for driving. Similarly by Kulkarni et al awareness regarding road safety measures was observed to be considerably low regarding certain important issues such as alcohol.…”

“…4,7 In this study 36 (40%) owned 2 wheeler, 10% owned car similar to Reang et al of 43% owned two wheelers, 16% four wheelers and Zaidi et al 58% owned vehicle. 6 But in Christopher et al 55.4% had 2 wheeler and 8% owned car.…”