Road traffic crashes and built environment analysis of crash hotspots based on local police data in Galle, Sri Lanka

ABSTRACT

Road traffic crashes (RTCs) are a leading cause of death and disability. In low- and middle-income countries, vulnerable road users are commonly involved in injurious RTCs. This study describes epidemiological and built environment analysis (BEA) of in Galle, Sri Lanka. After ethical and police permission, police data were collected and descriptive statistics tabulated. Spatial analysis identified hot spots and BEA was conducted at each location. Seven hundred and fifty-two victim data from 389 reported RTCs were collected. Most victims were male (91%) 21–50 years of age (>70%). Forty-nine percent of RTCs were non-grievous. Crashes commonly included motorcycles (33.9%), three-wheelers (18.3%) or cars (14.4%). Most victims were drivers (33.4%) or pedestrians (21.3%). Factors contributing to RTCs include aggressive driving (44.5%) or speeding (42.7%). All hotspots were in urban areas, and most were at intersections (63%). Further analysis of hot spots is necessary to identify areas for intervention.

KEYWORDS:

• Epidemiology
• road traffic crashes
• hotspots
• Sri Lanka

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our colleagues at the University of Ruhuna, the Deputy Inspector General of Police for the southern range of Sri Lanka and the Galle City and Port Police who without their support, hard work, persistence and cooperation this project would not have been completed.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

Research support funding for this project was received from the Duke Global Health Institute and the Fudan University Center for Global Health. Dr Staton was supported by funding from the Fogarty International Center [K01 TW010000-01A1].