• Tsgab Tesfay Hagos
• Mehari Gidena Tsegay

The overall purpose of the study was to investigate the root causes of road traffic accidents on study areas which includes the whole Eastern Zone of Tigray and May-Mekden to Lachi road traffic line found in South East Zone of Tigray and to create a comprehensive model which is crucial to reduce road traffic accidents in this area. The study area was selected systematically as per the preliminary survey results generated from the road traffic accident records in the traffic police office of Eastern Zone and South East Zone of Tigray. A mixed research method i.e. qualitative and quantitative research approach was used to carry out the research analysis and interpretation over the primary and secondary data collected from the study area. The findings generated from the research analysis made known that within four years from 2007E.C onwards 422 accidents have occurred in which 228 people was dead, 568 people was injured and 26,592,265.53 birr worth property was damaged. The major cause of road traffic accident was driving at high speed i.e. beyond 80 KM/hour at towns and 120 KM/hour at rural areas (in the context of Ethiopia) where over 85% of the drivers traced in the survey was not clear about recommended range of driving speed in town and rural areas. Lack of giving priority to pedestrian, driving left direction (in the context of Ethiopia right is for vehicle) and lack of appropriate distance while driving sequentially were ranked as root causes of road traffic accidents next to high speed driving. From the total accidents 86.97% and 65.4% of the accidents were occurred at good weather condition and straight road alignment respectively. 57 % of pedestrians at the study areas were not aware about road utilization i.e. they did not know the left direction against of vehicle motion and left and right direction of road was used interchangeably. Vehicle inspection was not carried regularly and to the standard due to lack of machineries and experts. As a result 87% of drivers included in the survey were not using preventive maintenance rather used breakdown maintenance. This study has confirmed the major causes of road traffic accident in the study area were primary driving at high speed and next lack of giving priority to pedestrians. A hexagonal road traffic accident reduction model was developed which fully considers the analysis results and takes in to account all the causes determined in the survey.

Accidents, vehicle, Pedestrian and Survey

"Investigation of causes of road traffic accidents (a case study of Zalambesa – Adigrat-Mekelle road traffic line and its tributaries)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no.219-231, June 2019, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906V32.pdf

"Investigation of causes of road traffic accidents (a case study of Zalambesa – Adigrat-Mekelle road traffic line and its tributaries)", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.6, Issue 6, page no. pp219-231, June 2019, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR1906V32.pdf