BRUNEI-MUARA

JALAN Gadong is the road most prone to accidents. The 12-kilometre road that stretches from Jalan Kumbang Pasang to Jalan Tutong recorded the highest number of accidents per kilometre per year between 2011 and 2013.

Dr Tan Soon Jiann, the Director of the Centre for Transport Research at the Institut Teknologi Brunei (ITB) revealed the findings during the National Road Safety seminar at ITB’s campus yesterday.

His presentation titled “Brunei Road Traffic Accident Statistics: Our Target by 2020 and Beyond” showed the where, when and why were accidents prone to occur.

He showed that Jalan Gadong was the only road that recorded 16 accident cases among the 10 most accident prone roads in Brunei.

Jalan Jerudong with 11.7 cases is the second road most prone to accident followed by the Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah highway (11.2) and Jalan Utama Berakas (10.4).

Other accident prone areas were the Tungku Highway (7.5), Muara-Tutong Highway (6.6), Jalan Tutong (5.8), Seria Bypass (4.2), Jalan Tengah (4.0) and Jalan Muara (3.4).

Also the Brunei-Muara district was found to be the majority of where road traffic accidents occurred. Brunei-Muara had 65 per cent, Belait at 21 per cent and Tutong at 13 per cent.

On when, Dr Tan said that an analysis known as the 1 Hour Killed or Seriously Injured (KSI) Interval for one year helped discover at what time do dangerous accidents approximately happen in a day throughout 2012.

The number of KSI casualties was at approximately at its high at 4-5am, 8-9pm and at its peak at 11pm to midnight.

In 2012, transport accident was ranked as the joint fifth major causes of death in Brunei tied with hypertensive diseases.

Touching on why accidents occur, Dr Tan said that driver’s behaviour accounted for 82 per cent while road environment accoun-ted 16.3 per cent and vehicle defects with 2.1 per cent.

He said that in 2020 they targeted road casualties to continue to reduce. With evidence based national fatalities, the target for 2020 he said was to bring down fatalities to four fatalities per 100,000 Population and make a reduction of 35 per cent in fatal rate from 2010 to 2020.

“Based on the Land Transport Master Plan for Brunei Darussalam by 2025, we also aspire to achieve 60 per cent killed or seriously injured (KSI); 70 per cent child KSI; and 35 per cent slight casualties,” he said.

Dr Tan, who holds a Doctorate from University College London and researched on the civil engineering of Highway Bridges said that with safer systems approach, safer drivers, safer vehicles and safe roads.

In an interview with The Brunei Times, the 35-year-old said this was the first time a research made on road accidents paid critical attention to the location of the accidents.

With cooperation from the Brunei Research Council, Dr Tan said the research was to find out where were areas prone to accidents and why.

“Research in these areas helps us with the speed management in these areas because you must take into account that not all roads are designed to speed in,” he said.

“Therefore we can advise the public to be extra careful and devote more attention when driving in these areas.”

The Brunei Times