Determination of traffic accident black spots and proposed solutions: The case of Şirnak

In recent years, the traffic density due to the increasing number of vehicles on the highwaysleads to an increase in the number of traffic accidents in worldwide. The consequences of traffic accidents causes to serious material and moral losses. Therefore, examining and analyzing the traffic accidents is critically important in reducing and preventing the number of accidents. Especially, the regions where accidents are occurred densely, should have priority to examine and analyze. In literature, "black spot" is defined as where the accidents are occurred densely. In order to prevent traffic accidentin world and as well as Turkey, black spots should be determined and these spots have to be improved. However, there is not any single method to determine black spot. In Turkey, the black spots are determined by General Directorate of Highways based on Ratio Quality Control Method. This study aims to determine black spots in Sirnak province by using different methods in the relevant literature. In this regard, traffic accident records between 2013 and 2017 of Sirnak province were collected and used to determine black spots. In this study, the Ratio Quality Control, Number of Accident, Accident Rate and Equivalent Weight Methods were used to determine black spot. A separate critical value for Number of Accident, Accident Rate and Equivalent Weight Methods were selected and findings of these methods were benchmarking with the findings of Ratio Quality Control. The traffic accident occurred in Sirnak province were first assessed based time period, reasons of realization and type of vehicle, and then analyzed. The identified black spots were examined in terms of geometric standards, surface conditions and traffic conditions of the highways in detail. The reasons of being black spot of the identified locations are revealed and solutions are suggested. The findings of this study can be taken as a reference to specify critical value for the other methods rather than Ratio Quality Control Method in future studies Keywords: Sirnak, Black Spot, Traffic Accident, Rate Quality Control Method, Accident Rate, Equivalent Weight Method.