INVESTIGATION OF PHYSICAL LAWS OF MOTION AND HUMAN FACTORS ON ROAD ACCIDENTS IN UASIN-GISHU AND BUNGOMA COUNTIES - KENYA

Road accidents in the Transport Industry are a threat to public health and national development in many developing countries. It contributes to poverty by deaths, injuries, disabilities, grief, lost of productivity and material damages. This study was undertaken at Uasin-Gishu and Bungoma counties, with specific focus on Uasin-Gishu (UGC) County Hospitals, Bungoma County Hospitals, (BCH), Eldoret Police Station, Bungoma Police Station, County’s department of Transport / accidents and some road terminus in Uasin-Gishu and Bungoma counties. The study sought to identify risk factors for road accidents in transport industry in the two counties. The research established the effects of Geometry and environmental factors to accident and found the relationship between speed of a vehicle and road accidents by applying power model to estimate the impacts of road accidents, and the implications of physical factors. Physical and human factors on road accidents in two counties were investigated. The results obtained in this study, can be used by the road safety and county authorities for planning and evaluating road safety measures. The methodology and procedure for data collection was based on both qualitative and quantitative approach. Interviews, focus group discussions, observations and review of secondary data, were used in data collection accordingly; some data was subjected to power model to estimate the road accidents effects. The data can be used further by the stakeholders to develop interventions to mitigate road accidents in the Transport Industry. Statistical analyses of data were done by descriptive. Statistics employing the measures of central tendencies, frequency distributions, difference between a set of observed frequencies and a corresponding expected frequency. Research found that up to 38.4% of accidents on monotonous roads in Bungoma and Uasin –Gishu counties were fatigue related.Young male drivers, truck drivers, company car drivers and shift workers were the most at risk of falling asleep while driving. When vehicle was moving at 150km/h and reduced its speed to 140Km/h at accident point the chances of road accident being fatal was reduced to 65.6%.This indicated that chances that the road accident was not fatal were 34%.when the vehicle was moving at 70km/h and reduced to 60km/h at accident point, the number of fatal road accidents was estimated to go down to 48.2% the initial number, corresponding to a reduction of 51.8%