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Tough enforcement needed on safe driving, roadworthiness
In broad terms, we commonly commit errors while working, driving, etc. Yet the type of error varies. It could be rule-based (forgetting to indicate while turning), skill-based (crashing while overtaking due to inappropriate estimation) or knowledge-based (failure to estimate fuel consumption when the indicator is not working).
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Jasa Marga personnel assist in lifting cars involved in an accident on the Cipularang toll road’s Purbaleunyi section in Purwakarta, West Java. (ANTARA FOTO/Ibnu Chazar)
T
oll road accidents, including one on the Cipularang toll road that killed eight people in a pile-up of more than 20 vehicles on Sept. 2, bring to mind the common association of heavy vehicles — from medium to big buses or trucks — and severe road accidents. A motorcycle hit by a car at 50 kilometers per hour will have a different ending to one hit by a heavier and more powerful vehicle, such as a bus, at the same speed.
The website of the National Transportation Safety Committee (KNKT) has reports from 2007 to 2018. I attempted to make a simple systematic review assessing the total number of accidents and the extent of human error contributing to them.
I found 83 reports, with two being inaccessible due to broken links. Out of the remaining 81, 69 reports mention the involvement of buses and trucks, meaning those vehicles play a significant role in accidents.
The KNKT reports always contain an analysis of human involement, vehicles and infrastructure/surrounding environment. However, I only focused on the human factors. The next step, therefore, was to classify human error in each accident, combining popular theories regarding safety and human error.
In broad terms, we commonly commit errors while working, driving, etc. Yet the type of error varies. It could be rule-based (forgetting to indicate while turning), skill-based (crashing while overtaking due to inappropriate estimation) or knowledge-based (failure to estimate fuel consumption when the indicator is not working).
Adding to those three error types are violations suspected to be intentional. Frequently these include speeding (routine violation), not using seatbelts because the car does not have any (situational) or an ambulance driving against the traffic to get to the hospital quickly (exception to violation).
I concluded that 69 accidents, or 85 percent of the ones the KNKT investigated, involved heavy vehicles. Of those, 25 accidents were single-vehicle ones (excluded from this analysis), 27 were multiple-vehicle ones, 11 were pile-ups and 6 involved trains.
