Road Safety; How Well - Informed Are Our Rural Population?

Abstract

A community based cross sectional study was carried out in a rural block of north Tamilnadu to assess the knowledge; attitude and practice of general population of age group 18 to 35 regarding road safety rules. A semi structured interviewed administered questionnaire was administered among a 115 participants. 82.1% drove vehicle without a license. 75.7% did not know the side of the road to be used by pedestrians for walking. Only 15.7% could recognize all 5 traffic signals properly. Nearly 95.7% agree that helmets prevent accident, but only 37.5% use helmet/seat belt regularly. To prevent casualties due to road traffic accidents (RTA) mass public awareness campaigns should be initiated so that both the driver and the pedestrian will be aware of all the traffic rules properly. The ignorance of one can become fatal for the other.

Road safety and the community: an awareness survey among the coastal population of Karnataka

“…In contrast the study carried out among the rural population in Vellore, had a higher proportion of male participants (66.1%). 11,12 In the present study 62.4% of the participants had 10 or less years of schooling as compared to 45.2% of the population in the study done in Vellore. 11 While nearly 83% of the participants in the Vellore study reported to know driving, only 39.2% of the participants in this study stated the same.…”

“…11,12 In the present study 62.4% of the participants had 10 or less years of schooling as compared to 45.2% of the population in the study done in Vellore. 11 While nearly 83% of the participants in the Vellore study reported to know driving, only 39.2% of the participants in this study stated the same. These differences could be because of the higher proportion of female participants and a higher age bracket as compared to the Vellore study population.…”

“…15,17 This gender difference in awareness might be attributed to the study settings; the present study and the one conducted in Tamil Nadu mainly included rural and semiurban population, while the one conducted in Chandigarh was among participants from an urban background. 11,15 A minority number of participants from the present study (11%) and the Vellore study (15%) correctly interpreted all the traffic signage displayed.…”

“…15 The study from Vellore reported a much lower usage of 38%. 11 The favourable behavior of using helmets in our study was probably a direct outcome of the stringent helmet enforcement drive carried out by the local government during the survey period. As regards mobile use while driving, the Chandigarh study reported 22% usage among its population that corresponds with ours.…”

“…A similar community based study from Vellore consisted of participants, who were considerably younger (18 to 35 years). 11 Another study carried out in Yerevan, Republic of Armenia reported the mean age of participants to be 38.7 years (SD±15.0). 12 More than half of the participants in the present study were females (65.1%), which is similar to the study from Yerevan, where 59.5% of the participants were females.…”