Exploring improvisations in road safety in a low-income setting

Abstract

Road collision types repeat themselves, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where countermeasures are often improvised and implemented with little planning. At the Shahbag intersection in Dhaka, Bangladesh, speed bumps were quickly constructed at the exit of the intersection as an improvised road safety measure following the occurrence of a fatal collision, which eventually contributed to another collision between a truck and a car. The events influencing the improvisation decision, and that action’s consequences, have been analysed using the Impromap methodology, a variation of the Accimap approach that focusses specifically on improvisation. The applicability of the Impromap as a systems-based approach to the road safety domain is assessed using the predictions described in Rasmussen’s risk management framework, and corresponding countermeasures are proposed. The analysis shows that improvisation in the road safety domain is undesirable irrespective of the economic setting as it is likely to eventually contribute to secondary collisions.

Practitioner summary: In this paper, the events influencing the improvisation decision following a road crash, and that action’s consequences, have been analysed using the Impromap methodology. The applicability of Impromap as a systems-based approach in road safety domain is assessed using the Rasmussen’s risk management framework-based predictions, and corresponding countermeasures are proposed.

Keywords:

• Improvisation
• LMIC
• road safety
• systems approach

Acknowledgements

The views expressed in this publication are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the UK Department of Health and Social Care.

Ethical statement

The authors confirm that this study does not involve humans, animals, plants, biological material, protected or non-public datasets, collections or sites and does not require an ethical statement (Not Applicable).

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Institute for Health Research [NIHR; 16/137/122] using UK aid from the UK Government to support global health research.