Assessment of Motorcycle Crashes in South Omo Zone, Ethiopia
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Date
2019-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Road traffic crashes have a significant impact on social, economic and public health sectors in Ethiopia.
Globally, close to 1.35 million peoples die from road traffic crashes each year. Of these, on average,28% of
road traffic death accounted for two and three-wheelers worldwide. These figures indicate that two and
three-wheelers death occurs more than a quarter of all road traffic crashes. In South Omo, motorcycles are
often used for personal and commercial transport and gradually leads to different crashes, which deserves
more attention. The main objective of this study is to assess the magnitude and factors associated with
motorcycle crashes in the south Omo zone, Ethiopia. Both primary and secondary data sources were used.
Four-year police-reported crash data included reports from (January 2014 to December 2017) about
motorcycle crashes was conducted from records of four police stations of south Omo zone and standard
questionnaire were require an in-depth understanding of the problems. First, descriptive statistics were used
by using frequency distribution and percentages. Multinomial logistic regression model and one-way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) were done using SPSS software which was used to analyses secondary and
primary data respectively. The results indicate that a total of two hundred six motorcycle crashes have been
registered in four police stations throughout the studied are from (January 2014 to December 2017).
Among these,36(17.5%) was fatal,88(42.7%) were serious injuries,52(25.2%) were slight injuries and
30(14.6%) were caused by property damages. The gender proportion of motorcycle crashes were happened
by male riders only. The result of multinomial logistic regression model reveals that, severity of
motorcycle crash increase with riders age of below 18 and between 31-50;low education level(5 to 8);
insufficient riding experience(over 2 to 5); owners of motorcycle; long service year of motorcycle(over 5 to
10) and motorcycle with sudden mechanical problems are the main determinant factors for the occurrence
of motorcycle crashes. Almost, the highest number of motorcycles are legally registered. But, some of
them are unregistered and the impact would be the severity of the crash which might be worst. In addition,
the result from the participants or motorcycle riders in this study respond shows that, of the total,37.9% of
motorcycle riders are not wearing safety helmets. Moreover, the main factors that contribute to the
occurrence of motorcycle crashes are human factors 266(68.6%), Vehicular (motorcycle) factor 36(9.3%),
environmental factor 44(11.3%) and the other like enforcement of legislation and regulation 42(10.8%) are
other factors to the occurrence of motorcycle crashes.
Based on the study, among others, the most important factors for motorcycle crashes were failure to give
priority for pedestrians, careless riding, over speeding and violating traffic rules. Besides, loss of control of
motorcycle and collision while overtaking other road users were the other most risk factors. Generally, the
problem was steadily increasing in the study area over this period of time and needs critical remedial
measurements. Though, the concerned policymakers may need to consider those mentioned factors;
ensuring that motorcycle riders obey traffic rules, making sure that the riders are properly training before
riding and enforcing the speed limit appear to be the most critical parts of necessary measurements.
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Keywords
Motorcycle, Crashes, Magnitude, Risk factors, South Omo Zone, Ethiopia