Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Integrated Mathematics
Territory: Guyana
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………………3
METHODOLOGY……...……………………………………………………………………5
ORGANIZATION OF DATA…….…………………………………………………………7
PRESENTATION OF FINDINGS……………………………………………………….....10
INTERRETATION OF FINDINGS……………………………………………..…………..19
RECCOMMENDATIONS…………………………………………………………………..21
CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………………………………...22
BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………….……...23
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Acknowledgements
The researcher would like to express heartfelt gratitude to the ones that rendered assistance during
the completion of this Internal assessment, namely, God, his family and his Caribbean Studies
teacher, miss Roxanne La Fleur
1
Project Title
“An examination of motor traffic accidents occurring in Urban centers and adjoining Roadways in
Guyana”
2
Guyana, being a developing country, is known to have a high volume of motor traffic, especially
in the country’s capital Georgetown and other urban areas. Within the past few decades the volume
and varieties of motor transport, both private and commercial, has skyrocketed. The urban centers
of Guyana houses a large portion of the country’s population, and hence, congestion, driver error
or recklessness, slack legislation and enforcement often leads to a great deal of accidents which
The selection of this topic is rooted in several reasons, including the continued rise of fatal road
traffics accidents, the continuous apparent disregard for road laws by some drivers and a personal
interest in the topic since the researcher is, himself a daily driver or passenger in a motor vehicle
The researcher employed the use of quantitative data as the preferred data to be used in this project.
“it emphasizes objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical, or numerical analysis if
numerical data and generalizing it across groups of people or to explain a particular phenomenon.”1
To find the probability that a person traveling along the highways between settlements
1
Babbie, Earl R. The Practice of Social Research. 12th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage, 2010; Muijs,
Daniel. Doing Quantitative Research in Education with SPSS. 2nd edition. London: SAGE Publications, 2010.
3
To determine the average number of road fatalities over the past nine years and the
To determine what category of road user is in the most danger of becoming a fatality.
4
For this project, the research employed was non experimental. This means that it “is the label given
to a study when a researcher cannot control, manipulate or alter the predictor variable or subjects,
this means the non-experimental researcher must rely on correlations, surveys or case studies, and
a high level of external validity, meaning it can be generalized to a larger population.”2 For the
purpose of this project, the researcher employs statistical data retrieved from official books of the
Guyana police force traffic division to prove if fatal traffic accidents have been on the rise.
In conducting the study utilizing preexisting statistical data, the researcher utilized fatal accidents
occurring on roadways in or between urbanized areas, these included the towns (excluding
Lethem) and capital city of Georgetown. This was used as vast majority of Guyanese only travel
along these roads and these are the roads where majority of accidents occur. The ‘population’
being studied included all users of roadways in the study area. With reference to geographic urban
population breakdown provided by the official census of Guyana 2012, the target population stands
at 608,528 Guyanese or 76.1 percent of the total population of Guyana. This method was
2
http://study.com/academy/lesson/non-experimental-and-experimental-research-differences-advantages-
disadvantages.html
5
To accurately determine the major causes of fatal road traffic accidents, the researcher employed
the use of statistical data as the data collection method. The statistical data played a vital role in
this project since it effectively serves for accurately capturing the various elements of each fatal
accident including age of fatalities, causes, category of road users that account for fatalities etc.
With statistical data, the data to be easily categorized and tabulated. The data was collected at the
Traffic police headquarters at evelery , Georgetown Guyana. This was done on the 28th of January,
2017.
As a Data Coding technique, The researcher utilized the built in tools on Microsoft excel to present
the raw data into a structured format in a spreadsheet so as it could be easily interpreted. The data
was further tabulated and presented into frequency tables for preservation purposes, the database
During the completion of this project, several challenges were faced. Firstly, the collection of the
official police statistics was limited to three years prior to the current date as previous could not
be found at the time of the researcher’s visit. Secondly, the data cited prior to 2014 was extracted
from news sources which was based on the official police records that were missing, but no form
of corroboration existed for the researcher to verify these statistics first hand.
6
Figure 1: Road fatalities for the period 2008 - 2016
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2014 |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| |||| 146
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Road user 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 Total per
category
Driver 21 9 17 20 17 16 21 19 140
Passengers 19 21 19 15 22 23 32 27 178
Pedestrians 42 40 38 34 39 60 42 38 333
Motor 15 24 12 19 18 26 16 23 153
Cyclists
other 19 21 17 22 16 21 15 21 152
Total 116 115 103 110 112 146 126 128 956
8
Figure 3: Age of driver involved in fatal accidents from 2014 - 2016
9
Figure 6: Bar graph depicting the fatality for the period 2008 - 2016
128
2016
126
2015
146
2014
2013 112
2012 110
2011 103
2010
115
2009
116
2008
110
0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160
Figure 6 illustrates the trends of traffic fatalities over a nine year period. We can see the figure
fluctuating between the years 2008 – 2011 with, 110,116,115 and 103 fatalities respectively, it
then starts to climb from 2012 – 2016 with 110, 112, 146, 126 and 128 fatalities respectively.
10
Figure 7: Line graph showing fatalities for categories of road users for the years 2009- 2016
70
60
60
50
42 42
Number of fatalities
40 39
40 38 38
34
32
30 26 27
24 22 23
21 21 20 22 23 21
19 19 16
17
20 18
19 21 21
19 21
17 16 17
15 16
9
10 12 15
19
15
0
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016
Year
Figure 3 shows the trends for the various category of road user fatalities, we can see that
pedestrians remain consistently higher that other road user fatalities with a total of 333 total
fatalities, The remaining four categories fluctuate over the years very similarly, with passengers
being the second most Affected road user with 178 fatalities followed closely by motorcyclists
and other road users ( bicycles, persons being towed on bicycles, persons on back of motor cycles)
with 153 and 152 deaths each and lastly by drivers with 140 fatalities over the examined period.
11
Figure 8: Ages of drivers involved in fatal accidents for the period 2014-2016
60
54
49 49
50
41
Number of Fatal accidents
40
34 35
32
30
30 27 28 2014
23 24 2015
21
2016
20
15 14
10
0
16-25 26-35 36-45 46-55 55 plus
Age range of drivers
Figure 8 depicts the breakdown of the ages of drivers involved in fatal accidents. The x axis denotes
the age categories while the y axis denotes the number of drivers for each corresponding age
category. The 26-35 range possess the highest figures with 49,49 and 54 for each respective year
12
Figure 9: Stacked bar graph depicting fatalities according to geographic boundary
2016 68 10 11 11 12 15
YEAR
2015 34 18 13 18 9 9 25
2014 53 16 7 7 16 14 29
NUMBER OF DEATHS
Figure 9 illustrates the number of fatalities for each corresponding geographic boundary for the
years 2014-2016 according to official police records. For 2014 we can see the most dangerous
areas in Descending order are the East Bank of Demerara (53), Berbice (29), Georgetown and the
West Coast of Demerara ( 16 each) and Essequibo and the East coast and west bank of Demerara
(7 each) .
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Figure 10: Causes of fatal accidents for the period 2014-2016
2%
1%
2%
26%
Speeding
DUI
Inattentiveness
57%
Failure to comply to Signs
Figure 10 shows the Causes of fatal accidents over the period 2014-2016 as a percentage of the
total number of accidents, which is 358. Speeding accounted for 205 fatalities in total with 87 in
2014, 51 in 2015 and 67 in 2016. DUI accounted for 44, with 10 in 2014, 17 in 2015 and 17 in
2016. Inattentiveness summed up to 94, with 33, 35 and 26 for the period 2014-2016 while failure
to comply to signs resulted in 7 total fatalities, 5 in 2014 and 1 each in 2015 and 2016. Breach of
traffic lights accounted for 5 fatalities, with none in 2014, 1 in 2015 and 4 in 2016 while 3 accidents
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Measures of Central Tendency
Mean
The researcher intends to calculate the average number of fatalities in traffic accidents over the
past nine years using the formula:
This shows that an average of 118 persons died each year while using the roadways of the country
for the period 2008-2016.
Following the same formula the following average number of fatalities for the period 2009 – 2016
were established
Drivers = 140/8
= 17.5 Fatalities
Passengers = 178/8
= 22.3 Fatalities
Pedestrians = 333/8
= 41.6 Fatalities
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Measures of Relative Position
Probability-
The researcher intends to calculate the probability of a random road user (both general and
specified categories) being a fatality in a road accident using the following formula:
1’066
608,528
= 0.001751768
= 0.0018
= 9 .
5000
Probability of a driver becoming a fatality
= 140
608528
= 0.000230063
=0.00023
= 23
100000
Probability of a passenger becoming a fatality
= 178
608528
= 0.000292509
= 0.00029
= 29
100000
16
Probability of a pedestrian becoming a fatality
= 333
608528
= 0.000547222
= 0.00055
= 11
20000
Probability of a motor Cyclist becoming a Fatality
153
608528
= 0.000251426
= 0.00025
=1
4000
Probability of ‘other’ road users becoming a fatality
152
608528
= 0.000249783
= 0.00025
=1
4000
17
Measures of Variability
σ2= (105 – 95)2 + (152 – 95)2 + (90 – 95)2 + (62- 95)2 + (67 – 95)2
5
= 102 + 572 -52 - 332 – 282
5
= 100 + 3249 + (-25) + (-1089) + (-784)
5
= 1451
5
= 290.2
= 290
Hence, the Standard Deviation: σ = √𝟐𝟗𝟎
= 17.029
= 17
18
After conducting the research, a great deal of information was provided for each of the objectives.
The data was analyzed using three distinct statistical tools, namely measures of Central Tendency,
In relation to objective one, determining the probability of a person traversing the roadways
between urban settlements becoming a fatality in a road accident, the measure of relative position
was used. The researcher totaled the amount of fatalities and divided the figure by the target
population, namely, the proportion of Guyana’s population that resides within and between the
major towns and city (608,528) Collectively, it was discovered that a random road traveler, at any
given time has a 0.0018 % chance of dying in a road accident, or a 9 in 5000 chance, which a
breakdown of the probabilities for each category of road users indicate that the chance of dying in
a road accident is very slim since it does not exceed 0.00055 or 11 in 20000.
Objective two dealt with the average number of road fatalities per year and the dominant causes
for these fatalities. This was calculated utilizing the measure of Central Tendency where the total
fatality figure was found and then divided by the period of years the data was collected over. Which
translated to 1066 fatalities divided by 9 years for an average of 118 fatalities per year. The mean
for each category of road user was also specified. In relation to the causes of these accidents, data
was provided for both the immediate cause and the human aspect for 3 years prior. The primary
causes of the accidents were speeding, driving under the influence of alcohol and inattentiveness.
Which accounted for 343 out of 358 accidents (96%). These causes are often interdependent. This
evidence is supported by the corresponding age ranges of drivers involved in fatal accidents with
the three youngest categories of drivers accounting for 73% of fatal accidents between 2014 -2016.
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The anomaly present in the data that seems to not the causes of fatal accidents with the age of the
drivers would be that drivers above age 46 account for a total of 129 fatal accidents, however
alcoholism and inattentiveness would also be higher in this age range. The sole primary cause can
be equated to speeding which would be the major contributing factor towards accidents.
Upon determining the causes, the third objective was addressed, which was the determining of the
category of road user most susceptible to harm. In terms of the drivers involved, a measure of
variability was employed to determine the variance and standard deviation of the amount of fatal
accidents each category of driver is involved in . The average number of accidents was calculated
at 95 per category, using the population formula for standard deviation, the standard deviation was
calculated to be 17. Therefore the most susceptible category of drivers were ages 26-35 which had
In relation to which category of road user is most vulnerable, Pedestrians were identified as most
vulnerable as they accounted for 35 % of total fatalities. This is so, since many pedestrians and
20
The completion of this research project solidified the view that several new measures needed to be
put into place to help curb the high number of road traffic deaths in Guyana.
barriers that rise with red light, restricting vehicles from passing and lower with a green
light, allowing them to past, hence making it incredibly difficult to breach traffic lights.
In addition, cars should be required to have a mandatory first aid kit, so as to aid in the event of a
crash.
Secondly, a database with all number plates and registered owners should be created and
implemented alongside with high powered cameras at fixed points along high traffic and
high danger roads capable of motion tracking to identify speeding vehicles. This can be
implemented with a automated software that automatically fines or issues the vehicle
New legislation should be introduced that affixes stricter penalties to those behind the
wheel in the event of an error or recklessness which includes but is not limited to treating
21
In conclusion, one can safely assert, due to the facts derived from the data that the probability of a
random road user dying in a road accident is very small (0.0018% chance) this small margin of
It can also be vividly seen that the average number of fatal road accidents is 118 per year while
the individual category with the highest average fatalities were pedestrians with 42 per year. These
accidents and subsequent deaths were primarily caused by young drivers 16 – 35 who were
Also, it can be seen that the user in the most danger of becoming a fatality, with regard to drivers,
the most susceptible to harm were drivers aged 16 – 35, while pedestrians were the most heavily
22
http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~adamodar/New_Home_Page/littlebook/statisticsrelationships.
http://study.com/academy/lesson/non-experimental-and-experimental-research-
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