Analytic hierarchy process [AHP] approach to determine the triggers of road accidents in Perlis / Nurdiyana Jamil

The number of road accidents fatalities in Perlis is increasing tremendously day
by day. The development in motorization sector leads towards road accidents
cases. The problems of road accidents are extremely in critical state even though
various preventive measures have been taken to reduce the rate of road accidents.
Thus, the actual factors and subfactors that contributed to the road accidents must
be identified clearly in order to make sure the preventive measures operate
successfully. The rank of factors and subfactors of road accidents also need to be
determined based on the weight obtained. Therefore, a method called Analytic
Hierarchy Process (AHP) was implemented in discovering the triggers of road
accidents in Perlis. Questionnaires were given to three experts who have
experience in dealing with road accidents in Perlis. These experts are traffic
police inspector, an officer from road transport department and an officer from
the fire brigade department. The pair-wise comparisons were rated by the experts
according to Saaty scale from one to nine. In order to obtain result of each factor
and sub-factor of the road accident, the comparison scales are averaged before
proceeding to other steps. Among the factors of road accidents, human behaviour
is the most affecting factor towards road accidents cases, followed by
environment and vehicle. For the subfactor of human behaviour, driving drunk or
under the influence are the causes of road accident. Weather condition falls in the
first rank of environment subfactor. Finally, brake failure represented under
vehicle subfactor which was the most influencing factor for the road accident
cases.