Comparison on road safety level and awareness among the students between school in urban and rural area / Mohd Yusri Yusoff

Introduction: A Road Safety Inspection (RSI) is an on-site systematic review of an existing road or section of road to identify hazardous conditions, faults, deficiencies that may lead to accidents. The road safety level and students awareness depend on the type of school area either urban or rural.
Methodology: The study was conducted at a school in rural and urban area. The sample school classified as rural school because of demographic factor which occupied criteria of rural area. Same as urban school which classified as a school in urban area because of its demographic factors. The study design of this study is cross-sectional comparative study. Sampling data collection using questionnaire, observation based on checklist for Road Safety Inspection (RSI) photograph and video. A statistical analysis that is statistical package for the social science (SPSS) version 17.0 was used in this study.
Results: The study was found that the road safety level in rural school area is lower compare than urban school area. There are inadequate road safety signage, inappropriate intersection, improper gate entrance access and others road safety facilities. The study also found that most of students in rural school are low level of road safety awareness compare than urban students. Through questionnaires 16 respondents from 40 respondents in rural school do not wear helmet during ride to school. But in urban school all of 12 respondents that ride motorcycle to school wear the helmet. A part from that, 4 respondents out of 40 rural respondents that have a license to ride compare than respondents in urban school which 10 respondents out of 12 urban respondents have a license to ride. Through questionnaires also 24 out of 40 rural respondents do not aware or knowledge about speed limit in school area. For urban respondents 2 out of 12 respondents do not aware about speed limit in school area. Other type of awareness such as road safety signage alertness show the comparison which 62 out of 100 rural respondents aware about road safety alertness compare that urban school which 74 out of 100 urban respondents aware about it. More over, from observation the rural students more tendency in doing road safety violation such as do not use pedestrian walk, ride motorcycle without helmet.
Conclusion: In conclusion, the rural school should improve their road safety level to ensure the safety of students inside or outside school area. The school administration also should increase the awareness among their students so that the students can practice safe and good road safety behaviour.