Application of GIS to Improve the Efficiency of Road Traffic Accident Data Collection and Analysis: A Case Study in Wolaita Sodo

Currently, road traffic accident data management is affected by manual referencing and inappropriate handling which can lead to inaccuracy in data collection, difficult to retrieve and inflexibility in the data analysis system, of which this study was conceptualized to apply GIS to improve the efficiency of road traffic accident data collection, specifically in Wolaita Sodo area. The accident data (2014 to 2018) was collected from traffic police and with the help of GPS and then transferred into GIS database to establish accident features along the road network. Out of 181 accidents collected, 167 accidents were scattered over different sections of the road network. The data shows that most of the accidents were occurred in the daytime (79%) rather than at night-time (21%). An investigation indicates that the speeding, limited sight distance, lack of traffic signs, poor pedestrian infrastructure, illegal crossing of pedestrian, and poor road alignment was identified as contributing factors at the blackspots. So, appropriate counter measures should be implemented for the selected areas immediately and accordingly. In conclusion, the study discovered that integrating GPS and GIS can improve the accuracy in the accident data collection, provides flexible database and analysis platform.