Identification of the Mechanical Failure Factors with Potential Influencing Road Accidents in Ecuador

Abstract

Road traffic accidents result in injury or even death of passengers. One potential cause of these accidents is mechanical failures due to a lack of vehicle maintenance. In the quest to identify these mechanical failures, this paper aims to set up the procedure to identify the mechanical failures that contribute to traffic accidents in cities located in developing countries, including the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. For present research, a database provided by the entity responsible for the Vehicle Technical Inspection, the Empresa Pública Municipal de Movilidad, Tránsito y Transporte and for the ones responsible of managing traffic accident data, Oficina de Investigación de Accidentes de Tránsito and Sección de Investigación de Accidentes de Tránsito was used. The vehicle subcategories M1 and M3 (bus type) and N1, so named according to Ecuadorian technical standards, were considered the most relevant regarding accident rates. The database was analysed with descriptive statistics, a Pareto chart and time series with the quadratic trend. From this analysis, the most significant failures found in the VTI in all three subcategories were the alignment of the driver headlight, both horizontal and vertical, braking imbalance on the 2nd axle, insufficient tire tread and parking brake effectiveness. All these failures showed a decreasing trend over time and in the forecast at a maximum of two to three years. The most relevant causes of road accidents recorded during the period 2009–2018 related to mechanical failures were the braking system (65.5%) and the steering system (17.2%) for subcategory M1.