ANALYSIS OF REMOVAL OF VEHICLE BREAKDOWNS AND ACCIDENTS ON MAJOR EXPRESSWAYS IN SINGAPORE

Abstract

This project consists of two parts. Part I basically covers the gross analysis of vehicles breakdowns and road accidents that occur on five major expressways in Singapore (PIE, CTE, AYE, BKE, ECP). Breakdowns and accidents that cause obstruction to the traffic flow were used for the analysis In general, PIE has the highest total number of breakdowns and accidents compared to the other four expressways. Furthermore, the breakdown and accident rate per 1,000,000 vehicle-kilometer in PIE are generally higher than the others. Part II is an analysis that focuses on obstructions occurring on the PIE. Detailed analysis of the types of breakdowns and accidents as well as the process of removing an accident were done. The objective is to determine the step in the process of removing the accident vehicle that consumes the most time. On average, it took a longer time to remove an accident involving serious injury, Type 5 (41.95 nun) than a breakdown, Type 3 (26.42 min). However there is no evidence to conclude that the mean time consumed in removing an accident involving serious injury is different from that involving minor injury, Type 4 (32.09 min). There is also no significant difference between the mean times of removing a breakdown and of an accident involving minor injury. As it took more time to remove a Type 5 accident, the activities of the process of removal of Type 5 (serious injury accident) were analysed. The activities falling on the critical path are: (l) "select resource", (2) "despatch resource", (3) "noting accident facts and remove accident vehicle". (Resource here refers to police personnel). The third activity consumes longer time compared to the other two. Therefore the time consumed by activity (3) must be reduced in order to restore the normal traffic flow in the shortest time.