Abstract

One of the inputs for the economic development of a country is the expansion of the road network, which is important for the transportation of people and freights from place to place. With this expansion, the occurrences of a road traffic accident is increasing in all parts of the world from time to time, killing the lives of many peoples and damage to properties. This problem is growing with the highest rate in sub-Saharan African countries like Ethiopia. The general objective of this study is to identify the hazardous locations of road traffic accidents and suggest countermeasures to mitigate the occurrence of road accidents. The study area was conducted in the East Wollega Zone of the Southwestern part of Ethiopia in the Oromia Region. Districts exposed to high traffic volume are sampled using the purposive sampling method. Those sampled districts include Digga, Sibbu Sire, Nekemte town, Wayyu Tuka, Guto Gidda, Gobbu Sayyo, Leka Dullacha, and Jimma Arjo. Road accident data are collected from all administrative districts from September 2012 to June 2015 (2005 -2007 E.C), and it was used for the analysis. In addition, a field survey was made to observe the existing geometry, an environment of the roadside, traffic flow regulators, and markings of the road sections. To rank each of the sample districts, evaluation of Priority value had been used consisting of a number of deaths, minor and major injuries that occurred for three years. Based on these parameters, each of the districts was listed from highest to lowest (i.e. Digga, Nekemte town, Sibbu Sire, Wayyu Tuka, Guto Gidda, and Gobbu Sayyo) out of the whole sample districts. This research study had found out that there was a significant increase in terms of the number of deaths occurring due to road traffic accidents as a result of the increase in the coverage of road crashes and their consequences. The major causes of road accidents include over-speeding, ignoring warning posts, road geometry, deterioration of pavement, and roadside environment. In order to minimize the frequency of road traffic accidents at the identified hazardous road locations, countermeasures are recommended, addressing to the concerned agency which includes speed breakers, installation of guardrails at curvatures, installation of hazard light to minimize night-time road accidents, removing roadside obstructions, repair, and maintenance of pavement defects to restore to as-is good condition and building additional facilities for pedestrians in an urban area.