Analysis of Traffic Injury Severity in Dhaka, Bangladesh

This research identifies roadway, traffic, and environmental factors that influence the injury severity of road traffic crashes in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Dhaka provides a rather unusual driving-risk environment to study because virtually anyone in Dhaka can obtain a driver's license, traffic enforcement is lax, and few fines are given when drivers violate traffic rules. To examine this city with presumed heightened crash severity risk, the authors collected police-reported crash data from 2007 to 2011 containing about 2,714 road traffic crashes. The injury severity of traffic crashes-recorded as fatal injury, serious injury, or property damage only-was modeled with an ordered probit model. Significant factors increasing the probability of fatal injuries included crashes along highways (65%), absence of a road divider (80%), crashes during night time (54%), and vehicle pedestrian collisions (367%); two-way traffic configuration (21%) and traffic police-controlled schemes (41%) decreased the probability of fatalities. Both similarities and differences of the findings between crash risk in Dhaka and that in developed countries are discussed in policy-relevant terms.