ACCIDENT BLACK SPOT

In road safety management, an accident black spot or black spot is a place where
road traffic accidents have historically been concentrated. It may have occurred for a
variety of reasons, such as a sharp drop or corner in a straight road, a hidden
junction on a fast road, poor or concealed warning signs at a cross-roads.

Definition of Black spot as per Ministry’s memorandum no: RW/NH/15017/109/2015/

P&M (RSCE) dated 28th October, 2015

“Road accident black spot is a stretch of National Highway of about 500 m in

length in which either 5 road accident (in all 3 years put together involving
fatalities/grievous in juries) took place during the last 3 calendar years or 10
fatalities (in all 3 years put together) took place during the last 3 calendar
year”.

According to National Highway Authority of India (NHAI), hazardous locations are

evaluated based on Accidents Severity index (ASI). Hazardous spots with
Accidents Severity Index (ASI) more than Threshold value (Average Severity +
1.5*Standard Deviation) will be treated as Black spots. For estimation of ASI, the
weightage to fatal accident will be assigned as 7 and to grievous injury accident as 3,
was considered based on NHAI's criteria.

The threshold value computation formula for first order, second order, third order,
fourth and fifth order priority black spots are given in Table 1.

Priority Threshold value

1st order black Spot Average Severity + 1.5*Standard Deviation

2nd order black Spot Average Severity + Standard Deviation

3rd order black Spot Average Severity + 0.5*Standard Deviation

4th order black Spot Average severity

5th order black Spot Below average severity

According to European Union-Regional Black Spot Management Guidelines
(TRACECA Regional Road Safety Project) there is no unique definition of what
should be regarded as a Black Spot and generally Black Spot may be defined as a
location which has a higher expected number of crashes than similar locations, as a
result of local risk factors.

Jointly with concerned stakeholders in different TRACECA Countries, the project

team proposed a suitable and common definition for Regional usage. The proposed
definition of Black Spot is defined as “Any location on a road with a maximum
length of 300 meters, at which at least four fatal crashes have been recorded
during the last three years”. Furthermore, a Black Road Section is defined as “any
road section with a maximum length of 1000 meters, at which at least six fatal
crashes have been recorded during the last three years”.

In Australia, black spots are defined in the Australian Guideline Code for the
Planning, Construction and Maintenance of roads. According to the guideline,
scenes of accident are distinguished in black spots and hazardous location,
depending on their recorded crash history. To be classified as a black spot, one of
the following criteria has to be met:

 3 or more similar injury accidents within 3 years and a relative

coefficient Rk of at least 0.8. the value is calculated by equation:
U
Rk =
0.5+ 7× 10−5 × AADT
Where
AADT= annual average daily traffic (vehicles/24hrs]
U= number of injury accidents within 3 years
 At least 5 accidents (including property damage only) of similar type
within one year. Since property damage accidents are not recorded in
Australia, hence black spot management primary relies on the first definition.

For calculation a sliding window with length of 250 m is being used

The critical value of 0.8 of the relative coefficient R K will be reached under the
following circumstances:

3 injury accidents in 3 years and an AADT upto 10700 vehicles/day

4 injury accidents in 3 years and an AADT upto 16700 vehicles/day

5 injury accidents in 3 years and an AADT upto 22600 vehicles/day

6 injury accidents in 3 years and an AADT upto 28600 vehicles/day

In Flanders, Belgium following definition of road accident black spot is applied: Each
site where in last 3 years, 3 or more accidents have occurred, is selected. Each
location identified as a black spot should have a length of not more than 100 m.
Then site is considered to be dangerous when its score for the priority (S), calculated
using the following formula, equals 15 or more:

S= LI + 3SI + 5DI

Where

LI= total number of slight injuries

SI= total number of serious injuries

DI= total number of deadly injuries

In Hungary, two definitions of road accident black spot are used. Outside built-up
areas, a black spot is defined as a location where at least 4 accidents have
been recorded during 3 years on a road section no longer than 1000 m. Inside
build-up areas, a black spot is defined as a location where at least 4 accidents
have been recorded in 3 years on a road section no longer than 100 m

In Norway, a distinction is made between Black Spots and Black Sections. A black
spot is any location with length of not more than 100 m where at least 4 injury
accidents have been recorded in last 5 years. A black section is any road
section with length of not more than 1000 m where at least 10 injury accidents
have been recorded during last 5 years.
SWEROADS

Identification of black spots: Identification is a first step in improving road safety at a

black spot. It has to be followed by diagnosis of the selected spots, finding
countermeasures, estimating effects and costs, prioritizing, implementation and at
last follow-up and evaluation.

The method used is called Rate – Quality – Control Method. It is a statistical method
for identifying black spots. The Rate – Quality – Control Method consists of
calculating three different parameters for each road section. In Turkey, a road
section is defined as one kilometre of road. The three parameters are:

 accident rate
 accident frequency,
 severity index.

Each of these values is compared with a critical value. Thus the accident rate is
compared with one critical value, the accident frequency with another critical value
and the severity value with a third critical value. If a certain road section shows
higher values than the critical ones for all these three parameters, the section is
considered to be a black spot.
Estimation of Accident Severity Index (ASI): Accident Severity Index is used to
evaluate the potential for occupant risk in full-scale crash tests involving roadside
safety. For estimation of ASI, below equation is used (Kumar et al., 2015) in which
the weight age to fatal accidents is taken as 7 and for grievous accident it is 3.
ASI=( ( N f × W f ) + ( N g ×G g ) )

Where:

Nf = No of fatal accidents at the location

Wf = weightage assigned to fatal accidents

Ns = No of grievous accidents at the location

Gg = weightage assigned to grievous accidents

Black spots: Black spots are the road locations that have a record of large number
of crashes or locations with high accident potentials. It is determined as the locations
which have accident severity index (ASI) more than threshold value (average
severity) + 1.2 (standard deviation) are assigned as black spots.

Total accident severity = 629

Total locations = 28

Average severity index = 629/28 = 22.46

Standard deviation = 23.29

Threshold value = 50.40