FACTORS IMPACTING TRAFFIC SAFETY AMONG COMMERCIAL DRIVERS IN SINGAPORE THROUGH DECISION TREES ANALYSIS

Abstract

The recent increment in the number of traffic accident rates among commercial drivers in Singapore indicate that there is a need to address the issue of traffic safety. There had been many research conducted overseas with regards to this topic and prior to that, many factors had been identified. However, none of these factors had been tested against the commercial drivers in Singapore. Therefore, the intention of this research paper would be to locate the factors which have an influence over the driving behaviour of the commercial drivers in Singapore, in hope of implementing proper risk management strategies to reduce the traffic accidents rates. A total of 30 commercial drivers were interviewed based on a set of questionnaire. The data collected were analyzed by decision trees which sieved out safety and health training and age to be the factors which had the most impact on the driving behaviour among commercial drivers in Singapore. In view of that, a proposed framework had been recommended to guide companies in assessing the safety standards of their current fleet of drivers as well as identifying the hazards. After which, the information should be used to supplement the design of the training programme so as to improve the safety behaviour of commercial drivers in Singapore which would in turn, reduce the traffic accident rates. The limitations faced in this research study would be social desirability bias as most of the answers are self reported.