Reassessing Road Sign Test of Drivers in Bangladesh

Abstract

Road crashes are one of the vital causes of death and heavy injuries around the world. Every year a lot of people died due to road crashes. In developing countries like Bangladesh, the crashing incidence is too high. Drivers’ fault is one of the main reason for the road crashes. If the drivers are properly trained, if they follow the road signs and traffic laws accordingly and if they are responsible enough while driving, road crashes and injuries can be minimized significantly and this will help to improve road safety scenarios. This study helps to identify those groups of driver who are not physically fit enough to drive, who have not trained properly, who are not capable of recalling necessary road signs and traffic laws after some years of their driving. This study reveals those groups of driver through a road sign test. Drivers’ who scored poorly in comparison with other drivers is the targeted groups of driver who requires safety education. A questionnaire survey was conducted among bus drivers, car drivers and truck drivers and a total of 300 samples were collected. A linear regression model analysis was applied to analyze the data. Result shows that test score of the drivers varied significantly with their age, education level, frequency of driving, experiences, effects of drug and alcohol etc. From the model result, the drivers who need further training can be identified easily. If any road safety training is introduced, then this selected groups of driver should get the priority first. It would be a better idea to train all the drivers after some years of their driving. But in country like Bangladesh it would not be economically feasible. So this study helps to identify those targeted groups of driver, who need to facilitate with further training.