Knowledge, Attitude And Practice Regarding Road Traffic Regulation Among College Students In Urban Area

Abstract

INTRODUCTION Accident is defined as an unfortunate incident that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally, typically resulting in damage or injury. Accidents are not frequently due to ignorance, but are also due to carelessness, thoughtlessness and over confidence. The number of road traffic deaths in the year 2013 were 1.25 million – has plateaued since 2007 despite the global increase in population and motorization and a predicted rise in deaths. 68 countries have seen a rise in the number of road traffic deaths since 2010, of which 84% are low or middle-income countries. Over 3,400 people die on the world's roads every day and tens of millions of people are injured or disabled every year. Children, pedestrians, cyclists and older people are among the most vulnerable of road users. In 2016, the total number of road accidents in India were reported to be 4,80,652, causing injuries to 4,94,624 persons and claiming 1,50,785 lives. According to Ministry of Road Transport and Highways Transport Research Wing the number of fatal accidents, i.e., accident in which at least one victim dies, has increased consistently since 2005 and seen a sharp rise from 1,31,726 in 2015 to 1,36,071 in 2016. Consequently, accident severity expressed in terms of number of persons killed per 100 accidents, has gone up from 29.1% in 2015 to 31.4% in 2016. In Belagavi, the number of accidents are increasing every year and during the year 2015, number of accidents were 446, number of people injured were 513 and number of deaths were 53. Prevention of Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) thus, becomes crucial in order to improve the longetivity and the quality of life of the individuals concerned. OBJECTIVE To assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practice regarding road traffic regulation among college students in Belagavi city. MATERIAL AND METHOD A cross sectional study was conducted among pre university college students in Belagavi city for a duration of one year. Total number of pre-university colleges in Belagavi city were 19 and they were divided into 4 groups (North, South, East, West). Randomly one college was selected from each group and from the selected colleges, population proportional sampling was done and a total of 934 students were interviewed using pre-designed and pre-tested questionnaire. RESULTS Out of 934 student, correct knowledge regarding reason for RTA were: 711 (76.12%) as high speeding, 676 (72.38%) as drunken driving, 658 (70.45%) as using mobile phone while driving, 614 (65.74%) as driver lack of awareness of traffic regulation and 591 (63.28%) as driver non-compliance with traffic rule and regulation. About 896 (95.94%) of the student told that helmet is necessary to wear while driving a two wheeler vehicle and 873 (93.47%) of the college student told that they should wear seat belt while driving a four wheeler vehicle. Nearly 713 (76.37%) of the college student had the correct knowledge regarding order of traffic lights in the traffic signal. Correct knowledge regarding traffic sign noted in college student were: 920 (98.50%) red light in traffic signal i.e. to stop the vehicle, 621 (66.49%) sign board cycle prohibited, 617 (66.06%) one way sign board and 781 (83.62%) of the student knew sign board no parking. There was difference in the knowledge score between male and female college student, which was statistically significant (p = < 0.0001) Out of 934 study participant, 822 (88.00%) agreed that usage of seatbelt reduce the risk of injury during an accident, 556 (59.52%) had positive attitude towards drunken driving i.e. random breath testing for alcohol can reduce the number of RTA and 745 (79.76%) of the college students had positive attitude towards road traffic accident victim. In our study, 660 (70.66%) of the participant told that they drive a vehicle, among them 175 (26.52 %) use to ride bicycle, 470 (71.21 %) ride two wheeler with or without gear and 15 (2.27 %) use to drive car. Among the college student who use to drive two and four wheeler vehicle, the favourable practice regarding road traffic regulation noted were: 358 (73.81 %) used dim and dip signal during driving at night, 32 (88.89 %) wore seatbelt always and at times, 418 (88.94 %) used helmet always and at times while driving two wheeler, 369 (76.08 %) practiced slowing down the vehicle when yellow traffic light is on, 430 (88.65 %) used indicator light before turning the vehicle, 407 (83.92 %) always and at times practiced overtaking of other vehicle on their right side and 439 (90.51 %) gave way to cyclist / pedestrian / ambulance always and at times. Among them 72 (14.84 %) had favourable practice score, 66 (13.62 %) had unfavourable and 347 (71.54 %) had neutral practice score. Out of 263 male college students, 25 (9.50%) had favourable practice, whereas out of 222 female participant 41 (18.47%) had favourable practice. Female college students had more favourable practice when compared to male college students and this difference was statistically significant (p = 0.002). Out of 386 college student residing in urban areas, 59 (15.28 %) had favourable practice, whereas out of 99 participant residing in rural areas 7 (7.07 %) had favourable practice. College student residing in urban areas had more favourable practice when compared to college student residing in rural areas and this difference was statistically significant (p = 0.003). CONCLUSION The present study showed that the knowledge, attitude and practice regarding road traffic regulation was fairly good among the college students. The common reasons cited for road traffic accident were high speed, drunken driving, using mobile phone while driving, driver lack of awareness of traffic regulation and driver non-compliance with traffic rule and regulation. The favourable practice regarding road traffic regulation noted in our study were use of dim and dip signal during driving at night, wearing of seatbelt while driving a car, use of helmet while driving two wheeler, practice of overtaking from right side only and giving way to cyclist/pedestrian/ambulance.