Ranking of the Factors Associated with Road Accidents using Correlation Analysis and Fuzzy TOPSIS

Abstract

Road accident is one of the major causes of death and injuries in Malaysia. The increase of road accidents is said to be associated with the factors of rapid growth in population, economic development, and motorization. However no specific literature was found to specify weights and subsequently rank the factors. This paper proposes a ranking of three selected factors associated with road accidents using the correlation analysis and Multi Criteria Decision Making, fuzzy TOPSIS. Statistical accident data issued by Royal Malaysian Police and linguistic judgement data collected from three authorised personnel of three Malaysian Government agencies were considered in analysis. The ranks ane be drawn using the strength of correlation coefficients and the magnitude of closeness coefficients in fuzzy TOPSIS. The results from two analyses indicate that registered vehicles yielded the highest ranking followed by population and road length. This ranking gives rise to concerns about the relevance of the factors in reducing accidents rate.