Accidents due to Slippery Road
Nowadays, accidents are likely to occur everywhere
regardless young, adult or old people. A road
accident, also known as a traffic
accident, motor vehicle
collision, motor vehicle
accident, car accident, automobile accident, Road Traffic
Collision (RTC), car crash, or car smash (Australian) occurs when a vehicle collides with another vehicle, pedestrian,
animal, road debris, or other
stationary obstruction, such as a tree or utility
pole. Traffic collisions may result in injury, death, vehicle damage and
property damage.
Some organizations have begun to avoid the term
"accident". Although auto collisions are rare in terms of the number
of vehicles on the road and the distance they travel, addressing the
contributing factors can reduce their likelihood. For example, proper signage
can decrease driver error and thereby reduce crash frequency by a third or more. That is why these organizations prefer
the term "collision" rather than "accident".
However, treating collisions as anything other
than "accidents" has been criticized for holding back safety
improvements, because a culture
of blame may discourage the involved parties from fully disclosing the facts,
and thus frustrate attempts to address the real root causes.
A number of factors
contribute to the risk of collision including; vehicle design, speed of
operation, road design, road environment, driver skill and/or impairment and
driver behaviour. Worldwide, motor
vehicle collisions lead to death
and disability as well as financial costs to both society and the individuals
involved.
A 1985 study by K. Rumar, using British and American
crash reports as data, found that 57% of crashes were due solely to driver
factors, 27% to combined roadway and driver factors, 6% to combined vehicle and
driver factors, 3% solely to roadway factors, 3% to combined roadway, driver,
and vehicle factors, 2% solely to vehicle factors and 1% to combined roadway and
vehicle factors.[1]
In this article, I will highlight about accident that is caused by slippery
road. Road slipperiness is the technical term for the cumulative effects of
water on the traction produced by the wheels of a vehicle. Road slipperiness
can be measured either the terms of the friction between a freely-spinning
wheel and the ground, or the braking distance of a braking vehicle, and is
related to the coefficient of friction between the tyre and the road surface.
Road slipperiness is one of the largest contributors to car accidents –
in 2001, over 5300000 accidents were caused by slippery roads in the worldwide[2]. A
small change in road slipperiness can have a drastic effect on surface
friction: decreasing the coefficient of friction from 0.45 to 0.35, equivalent
to adding a dusting of wet snow, increased the accident rate by almost 1000%.
As such, road agencies have a number of approaches to decreasing road
slipperiness.
A special road safety problem is split friction (when the friction
significantly differs between the left and the right wheel path)[3].
The road may then not be perceived as hazardous when accelerating, cruising or
even braking softly, but in a case of hard braking, the different in friction
will cause the vehicle to start to rotate towards the side offering higher
grip. Split friction may be caused by an improper road spot repair that results
in high variance of texture road and colour across the road section.
The two ways to measure road slipperiness are surface friction testing
and stopping distance testing. Friction testing can use surface friction
testers or portable friction testers and involves allowing a freely moving
object, usually wheel, to move again the surface. By measuring the resistance
experienced by the wheel, the friction between the ground and the wheel can be
found.
Public works agencies spend a
sizeable proportion of their budget measuring and reducing road slipperiness
through drainage and street sweeping in order to maximize road safety; even a
small increase in slipperiness of a section of road can increase the accident
rate of the section of road tenfold.
There are lots of ways that are designed to overcome the slippery road.
The best example is road is designed with a convex camber[4].
This convex camber provides sufficient drainage, thereby allowing surface water
to drain out of the road. Trouble sections include entrances and exits of
banked outercurves, where the cross slope is close to zero. Unless these
sections have a longitudinal grade of at least 0.4 – 0.5 %, water will not run
off the road surface. Storm drains may be installed at regular intervals and
modern paving materials are designed to provide high friction in most
conditions. Permeable paving allows water to soak through the paving material,
reducing slipperiness in very adverse conditions.
At Malaysia, slippery road is considered as one of the main factors road
accidents. The government had drafted many ways to prevent the road accident
from keep increasing from time to time. According to The Malaysian Road
Transport Department, the accident that is related to slippery road has shown a
significant increase from last 3 years[5].
This scenario became worst when the drivers do not take seriously about this
matter.
Even though slippery road is regard as one of main factor of road
accident, there are also other factors that are contributing in road accident
such as careless, speeding, drunken, and brake dysfunction.
The Prophet said, “By the will of Allah which brought the universe into
being, everything happens for reason- there are no accidents, only the
fulfillment of probabilities[6]”.
There
are lots of accident that was happened at worldwide right now. The Prophet
said, “Few major accidents manifest without Allah giving due warning. That we
fail to see, nor heed is our fault”. In islam, we must believe that there are
the reasons of why everythings happened. Below are examples of car accidents
news.
KUALA
TERENGGANU: Four people were killed in a tragic accident involving three
vehicles at Jalan Sultan Mizan near Taman Semarak Gong Badak here Wednesday. In
the 6.30pm accident, Nor Azni Mat Jusoh, 41, from Felda Mengkawang Ajil, Zaini
Abdul Razak, 43, from Ayer Keroh, Malacca, Mohd Faris Mohd Shaimi, 26, and Mohd
Rizal Ibrahim, 30, from Kedah died at the scene. According to Kuala Terengganu
Fire and Rescue Department Operations Chief Abdullah Zawawi Mohamad, a Honda
City car driven by Mohd Faris and his friend Mohd Rizal and heading to Kuala
Terengganu from Gong Badak, went out of control because of slippery road before
landing on a Perodua Kancil car coming from the opposite direction. The bodies of the dead were later sent to the Sultanah
Nur Zahirah Hospital[7].
A 100-year-old
driver plowed his Cadillac into a group of people near an elementary school in
South Los Angeles this afternoon, injuring nine kids and two adults, reports AP.
Four of the kids, ranging in age from 4 to 11, were in serious condition at a
local hospital, reports KTLA-TV. Authorities identified the driver as Preston Carter, and
the TV station (which has his age as 101) reports that he thinks his brakes
failed. Carter was not injured in the crash. Chief Police
added, the main caused of this accident is caused by the road that is very
slippery[8].
Below here is one of remembered-accident story ever in history that is
involve Princess of Wales, Princess Diana. According to sources, the slippery
road is one of main factor of the accident.
On
31 August 1997, Diana, Princess
of Wales died as a result of
injuries sustained in a car accident in the Pont de l'Alma road tunnel
in Paris, France. Her companion, Dodi
Fayed, and the driver of the Mercedes-Benz W140, Henri
Paul, were pronounced dead at the scene of the
accident. The bodyguard of Diana and Dodi, Trevor
Rees-Jones, was the only survivor. Although at first
the media pinned the blame on thepaparazzi,
the crash was ultimately found to be caused by the reckless actions of the
chauffeur, who was the head of security at the Ritz and had earlier goaded the paparazzi waiting outside the
hotel. An 18-month French
judicial investigation concluded in 1999 that the crash was caused by Paul, who
lost control of the car at high speed because of the slippery road and drunk.
His inebriation may have been made worse by the simultaneous presence of an anti-depressant and traces of a tranqulizing anti-psychotc in his body.
One
of famous Indonesia Islamic Scholar, Prof Dr Haji Abdul Malik Karim Amrullah[9] aka
Prof Dr Hamka during the World Muslim Forum at Jakarta has said that, Allah
S.W.T has granted us a life, so, why don’t we use that chance by doing
something that pleasure Allah S.W.T as our creator. He added, nowadays, lots of
car accident had caused lot of death among of mankind and this thing actually
can be prevented if we have high awareness about how harmful the car accident
it is.
Besides Prof Dr Hamka, Dr Asri Zainul
Abidin (Malaysian Famous Islam Missionary) also said that, lots of Malaysian
died due to road accidents. He added, as a muslim, we are forbid to do
something that might harm ourselves such as speeding while driving or doing
something that might cause dangerous to others. He gives example that, one way
to avoid accident is do not driving at the slippery road because it is
dangerous and doing so might be caused trouble to others people.
The British famous philosopher, F. H.
Bradley, has mentioned that the world is getting sophisticated by day to day.
He added, even we live at a sophisticated world, it is so sad to think of how
many people died due to road accidents. He also said in famous book that one of
most often thing happen to human is accidents. In that book also stated that human
should know the driving rules first before start the engine of car.
Jeremy Bentham, a western philosopher
has stated that accidents have caused lots of loss of life among humans. He
added, this thing should be prevented immediately so that human population can
keep increasing by day to day.
Based on my opinion, the main factor
of road accidents are caused by less awareness about how dangerous the accident
it is. If every person know about this thing, I’m 100 % sure that the number of
road accidents can be reduced by day to day. But everything happened has its
own reasons. Grieve not, for Allah is with us[10].
In conclusion, road accidents have caused
lots of loss life among human. Road accidents cause both tangible and intangible costs to the
economy. Some of the tangible costs include such as: Damage to the vehicle (replacement
and repair costs); administration
costs; Medical treatment;reduction in output due to injury and death; and
insurance costs.
insurance costs.
Intangilble costs include pain,grief and
suffering and the risk of being involved in an accident. In economical terms
the cost of road accidents to the Zambian economy is estimated at about 3% of
the GDP[11]. The
yearly costs of road accidents to the ecomomy is in billions of kwacha, and
since all vehicles and medicines aree imported, this amount depletes the scarce
foreign exchange available in the economy.
Road accidents cause direct impact on the social and physical enviromrnt. Whenever a person is involved in an accident, most likely the family will have to sustain the medical burden or, alternately, in the event of death, the whole family may become financially vulneral.
Road accidents cause direct impact on the social and physical enviromrnt. Whenever a person is involved in an accident, most likely the family will have to sustain the medical burden or, alternately, in the event of death, the whole family may become financially vulneral.
The Road Safety Authority's (RSA) annual international road safety
conference, which is being held in Dublin Castle today (May 26), is focusing on
the ‘human impact of road collisions'. It is being attended by almost 200 people,
including international experts, victims of road accidents and family members
who have lost a loved one in a collision.
Speaking at the conference, Brigitte
Chaudhry, coordinator of the European Federation of Road Traffic Victims
(FEVR), presented findings from a FEVR study on the impact of road deaths and
injuries. It found that depression, anger, suicidal feelings, anxiety attacks
and loss of drive are more common in the relatives of victims left with
disabilities than the victims themselves.
"The FEVR study shows that it's
not just the victim who suffers as a result of a serious injury or death on our
roads. Whilst negative emotions obviously affect the person involved in the
collision, our study shows that the families of these victims often present
more pronounced psychological suffering than the victims themselves," she
explained. Dr Edward Hickling, an author and clinical psychologist from New
York, presented his research on post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in people
who are seriously injured in road collisions.
We should know that all these happening included road accidents have
been determined by Allah S.W.T. Al-Qura has mention that (Allah) The Originator of the heavens
and the earth. When He decrees a matter, He only says to it, "Be,[12]"
[1] Harry Lum & Jerry A. Reagan. The 2010 Statistical Abstract: Road
Accidents and Fatalities. Public Road Magazine. Page 25
[2] Charles and
Geoffrey. The Biggest
Killer On The Road: Slippery Road. Time Publisher. The Times. (May) 2011
[5] Malaysia Road Safety; Malaysian Road Statistics. Cerdik Publisher. Cerdik Book Sdn. Bhd. (May)
2009
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