Commercial vehicles and road safety in Pakistan: exploring high-risk attributes among drivers and vehicles

Abstract

Road traffic injuries are on the rise in developing countries with a disproportionately high number of crashes involving commercial vehicles. Baseline information on risk factors is necessary to develop targeted prevention programmes. A survey of commercial drivers was conducted at the largest bus and truck station in Rawalpindi, Pakistan. Structured interviews elicited information from 857 drivers on their socio-demographics, high-risk driving behaviours, fatigue, use of drugs while driving, vehicle maintenance and health conditions, as well as crash involvement. A binary logistic regression analysis was used to investigate the factors associated with crash involvement in the last five years. Overall, 92 (11.2%) drivers reported having had a road crash in the last 5 years. Factors independently associated with the occurrence of crashes were alcohol use (OR 2.2, 95% CI 1.1–4.4), poor vehicle maintenance (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.7–7.01) and lack of seat belt use (OR 2.7, 95% CI 1.3–5.6). The high prevalence of high-risk attributes in the study population indicates a great need for targeted risk prevention.

Keywords:

• RTI
• commercial drivers
• risk factors
• road traffic crashes

Acknowledgements

This study was funded by the Road Traffic Injury Research Network. We would also like to acknowledge the contribution of Sophia T. Mir in editing the final draft.