Article Text
Abstract
According to Global status report on road safety in 2015, the total number of road traffic fatalities in the world remains high at 1.25 million per year. Intersections are designed points of conflicts in road network and one of the leading cause of intersection related crashes is Red-light-running (RLR) across the world. The RLR in Sri Lanka has not been reported so far by any type of road user, as per authors’ knowledge. The objective of this study was to investigate the characteristics of RLR and rate of occurrence of it. An observational survey was conducted in four signalized intersections at city of Colombo, Sri Lanka in September, 2017 for estimating the RLR three road user groups; motor vehicles, motorcycles, and motorized three-wheelers. Observations were done during daytime covering both peak and off-peak hours. The RLR drivers were classified by their gender and age group. Altogether 1,623 RLR cases were recorded out of 1 18 837 vehicles observed. The RLR rates for motor vehicle driver, motorcyclist, and three-wheeler operators were 0.94%, 2.44% and 1.33% respectively. The RLR rate of motor vehicle drivers was far lower than those for motorcyclists. Overall RLR rate was 1.39% that was lower than previously reported RLR in some other countries such as India (5.22%), United Kingdom (11.3%), and Jordan (12.4%). The effects of day of week and time period on RLR rate varied for individual road users. The rate for motorcyclists was high in morning than afternoon hours. When considered the age of violators, it was observed that young drivers were more likely to have risk-taking making RLR than old drivers. These findings is giving important information, when developing and implementing interventions and education programs to reduce RLR of different road users.