thèse doctorat de l'université bordeaux 2 - ISPED-Enseignement à ...

ObjectivesThe objectives of this first study were:1. To assess crash burden on an interurban road section in Cameroon.2. To describe crash types, causes, and situational factors.3. To describe outcome of traffic injuries, according to road user-related factors.This study was published as: Sobngwi-Tambekou J, Bhatti J, Kounga G, Salmi L-R, LagardeE. Road traffic crashes on the Yaoundé–Douala road section, Cameroon. Accident Analysisand Prevention 2010;42(2):422-6 (Appendix 2).The data was collected under supervision of Dr. Sobngwi-Tambekou and Dr. Lagarde. Icontributed to the analysis and manuscript writing.MethodsSetting and study designThe study settings were the Yaoundé-Douala road section. This 243-km long, mostly twolane,un-separated road section serves as a major link between two most populous cities of thecountry, Yaoundé and Douala. To assess road burden and describe factors involved inhighway crashes, traffic and crash data from road authorities and highway police stations wasretrospectively collected.Traffic countsTraffic count surveys were conducted by the Ministry of Public Works, Cameroon, on fivelocations during two seven-day periods in May and November 2005 [73]. Daytime trafficcounts were recorded from 6:00 am to 10:00 pm, whereas night-time counts were recordedfrom 10:00 pm to 6:00 am. All passing vehicles were counted and classified. Results showedthat the daily traffic count varied between 2 269 and 3 553 vehicles on Yaoundé-Douala roadsection; mid-city sections had the lowest traffic counts, and those close to the two main citieshad the highest traffic counts. Personal vehicles accounted for 55%, public transportation for21%, and trucks for 24% of the traffic [73].Police reportsIn June and July 2007, all 13 police stations within and outside Yaoundé and Douala werevisited to collect police traffic crash reports that had been filed between January 2004 andMay 2007. In principle, a police report is established for all injury crashes and for a number ofnon-injury crashes involving several counterparts, for which property loss and civilresponsibilities are at stake. All police reports retrieved from the police station archives werescanned. The State Defence Secretariat Bureau in Yaoundé, in charge of centralizing policereports in the country, was also visited to seek reports not found in the police stations.As a number of police reports are lost or destroyed, we evaluated the completeness of datacollection by comparing the availability of police reports with crash events reported in themain police station registers. In all police stations, such a register is continuously updatedwith one line for all events related to police interventions. This includes RTCs, which arelisted and identified by a report number and the corresponding police report number. Becausethe exact crash site is not specified in the registers and some crashes could have occurred on22