ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS FACTOR ON RURAL ARTERIAL ROADS

In Indonesia, traffic accidents occur on 23.55% of national roads and 75.08% of rural roads. The rural roads were identified as accident-prone areas. As a result, unsafe roads hinder population mobility, disrupt daily life, and reduce access to education, employment, and essential services, thereby affecting the well-being and development of rural communities. To identify the dominant factors that influence the frequency of collisions, a more thorough analysis of the multifactorial causes of traffic accidents in accident-prone areas is necessary. This study focused on analyzing the factors that contribute to road traffic accidents. Cross-tabulation was done using chi-square analysis. The chi-square test does not assume a normal distribution of data, which is beneficial when dealing with real-world data that may not follow normal distribution patterns. This flexibility makes it a robust choice for analyzing traffic accident data, which can be highly variable and not normally distributed. The results of the chi-square analysis for significance values below 0.05 indicate that there is a correlation between accident-causing factors (the independent variable) and collision frequency (the dependent variable). The results indicate that human factors, such as carelessness and high speed, as well as road and environmental factors, such as horizontal alignment, road width, clear zone, road signs, road markings, and land use, influence traffic accidents. Infrastructure factors such as horizontal alignment, road width, clear zones, shoulders, signs, and markings influence traffic accidents because they directly impact road user safety. Non-standard road geometry (horizontal alignment, road width, shoulder width, and clear zone) combined with incomplete road safety facilities (signs and markings) have the potential to cause traffic accidents. Therefore, harmonizing road geometry and equipment is necessary to improve arterial road safety, especially in accident-prone areas. Furthermore, speed management across a variety of land uses is required to reduce traffic accidents.