Abstract: The mountainous area approximately composes 2/3 of Chinese nation. The mountain road safety situation is important to the whole country. The paper starts from the characteristic of mountain road accidents. Through the studies the mountain road accidents shows different. There is higher death rate and more traffic accidents. In the major accidents, more accidents are fall to the roadside and the vehicles type is complex. By the actual survey in Sichuan Chongqing Yunnan and Guizhou four province, the mountain road safety facilities are checked. The characteristics and problems are found. Through the road traffic accidents analysis and the existing status of mountain safety facilities, the mountain road safety technology policies are given, which will provide a reference for managers

Chen Hongyun

Sun Chuanjiao

Xu Nuo

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Research Journal of Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology 4(5): 526-529, 2012
ISSN: 2040-7467
© Maxwell Scientific Organization, 2012
Submitted: September 23, 2011 Accepted: November 16, 2011 Published:  March 01, 2012
Corresponding Author: Sun Chuanjiao, Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100088, China
526
Safety Situation and Policy on Mountain Highway of China 
Sun Chuanjiao, Xu Nuo and Chen Hongyun
Research Institute of Highway Ministry of Transport, Beijing 100088, China
Abstract: The mountainous area approximately composes 2/3 of Chinese nation. The mountain road safety
situation is important to the whole country. The paper starts from the characteristic of mountain road accidents.
Through the studies the mountain road accidents shows different. There is higher death rate and more traffic
accidents. In the major accidents, more accidents are fall to the roadside and the vehicles type is complex. By
the actual survey in Sichuan Chongqing Yunnan and Guizhou four province, the mountain road safety facilities
are checked. The characteristics and problems are found. Through the road traffic accidents analysis and the
existing status of mountain safety facilities, the mountain road safety technology policies are given, which will
provide a reference for managers.
Key words:  Rural road, safety policy, traffic accident
INTRODUCTION
Mountain areas account for almost 2/3 of the land in
China. Limited to the rugged mountains, roads and other
infrastructure are difficult to be built. The main features
of mountain roads are in the high steep mountains,
winding and near the river and mountains, and have
advantageous road side (Ji, 2007; Yang, 2009; Zhen,
2009; Zhu and Liu, 2009; Zhang, 2006). The road is in
poor horizontal and vertical alignment, poor sight, and
serious geological disasters. Because of the bad natural
conditions of mountain roads, there are more traffic
accidents and traffic safety situation is serious. In addition
many mountain roads are in the western underdeveloped
areas of China, it is difficult to build the highway in the
early time limited to the economic level. On the road
building process, accessibility is a primary consideration
and road safety is insufficient. With the development of
economy and the increscent of travel demand, the demand
for road safety is also increasing. It is important to find
the adaptive mountain road safety technology policy by
analyzing the characteristics of accidents in mountain
road. Li (2003) analyse the major road traffic management
measures in western mountains. Xu (2005) analyse the
major road traffic management measures in western
mountains. Guang and Ma (2007) give the analysis of
rural road traffic accidents and traffic safety
countermeasures.
This study starts from the characteristic of mountain
road accidents. Through the studies the mountain road
accidents shows different. There is higher death rate and
more traffic accidents. In the major accidents, more
accidents are fall to the roadside and the vehicles type is
complex. By the actual survey in Sichuan Chongqing
Yunnan and Guizhou four province, the mountain road
safety facilities are checked. The characteristics and
problems are found. Through the road traffic accidents
analysis and the existing status of mountain safety
facilities, the mountain road safety technology policies are
given, which will provide a reference for managers.
CHARACTERISTICS OF MOUNTAIN
ROAD ACCIDENT
The traffic accident on the mountain road has its own
characteristics relative to other traffic accidents.
According to the statistical data in "road traffic accident
statistics report of China (2008)" published by the
Ministry of Public Security Traffic Management Bureau,
traffic accident under different topographic characteristics
is shown in Table 1.
From Table 1, the number of accidents, deaths and
injuries in mountain plains region is lower, mainly
because in the mountainous western region of China is
with less vehicle ownership. However, Fig. 1 shows the
death rate and the injury rate of mountain area are higher
than that in hills and plains; especially the death rate was
0.39, which means there are at least one person died in
three accidents. Injury rate was 1.29 which means there
are 1.29 persons in the every accident injury. Figure 2
shows in 2008 the statistics data in different province with
more than 3 persons. It can be seen from Fig. 2, a large
number of serious traffic accident occurred in Guangdong,
Sichuan, Yunnan, Guizhou, Shaanxi and Xinjiang
provinces, which have more mountainous terrain. In
summary, it is important to study the mountain road safety
because of the seriousness of road traffic accidents. 
According to the statistical data in "road traffic
accident statistics report of China (2008)" published by
the  Ministry  of  Public  Security  Traffic  Management
Res. J. App. Sci. Eng. Technol., 4(5): 526-529, 2012
527
0.26
1.10
0.26 0.39
1.22 1.29
1.50
1.00
0.50
0.00
Plain Hill Mountain 
Death rate Iniurv rate 
Table 1: The accident statistics data under different topographic (2008)
Topogr- Accident Accident Death Death Injury Injury
aphic no. rate (%) no. rate (%) no. rate (%)
Plain 175351 66.12 46174 62.84 192933 63.27
Hill 59609 22.48 15527 21.13 73016 23.95
Mountain 30244 11.40 11783 16.03 38970 12.78
Fig. 1: Death and injury rate under different terrain conditions
(2008)
Bureau: there are 29 traffic accidents which more than 10
people died in once, the vehicle type is listed in Fig. 3.
From Fig. 3, the major vehicle type is large sleeper
bus-based and common bus because bus carries more
persons than other vehicles. In these accidents with
serious consequences there are 3 accidents which the
vehicle type is tractor or deformation tractor. This means
tractors carrying illegal in some areas still exist. It is more
significant security risk.
It can be seen from Fig. 4 for the serious traffic
accident, vehicle falling accidents accounted for 1/3 of the
total amount. The falling accidents usually occur in the
higher slope, a timely, mountain road near water. The
general guardrail provide less protective to bus than to the
car, once an emergency occur it is difficult to restore.
CURRENT SAFETY SITUATION OF MOUNTAIN
HIGHWAY IN CHINA
In order to know the current situation of mountain
highway in China, 160 managers and experts related to
the traffic safety management from Yunnan, Guizhou,
Sichuan, Chongqing  are asked to analyze the safety
situation of China. The spot survey on the status of
mountain highway safety and accident black spots, the
mountain road safety facilities of the status quo. Overall,
taking over the specific security technologies and
measures are different, but mainly include the following:
C Guardrail facilities, including the wave beam
guardrail, cable barrier, anti-wall concrete guardrail,
etc. Sichuan, Chongqing is mainly wave beam
guardrail, mainly considering the unity of protection,
aesthetics and environment. Yunnan, Guizhou adopts
concrete wall in the protection zone for better
protection performance and lower maintenance costs
later. The high cost of cable guardrail is mostly used
in highway because of better environment and higher
technical requirements
.C In the mountain road, warning sign is mainly set in
the spot of steep slopes, sharp bends, bad sight
distance and etc. 
C Improvement of sight distance. Because of more
steep and winding road slope, and bad sight distance,
the major improvements is to increase sight distance,
set convex minor, and widen the inside lane.
C Designated marking sign. In some section of the
mountain road, the marking sign is made to divide
lanes and ensure vehicles on the right lane
.C There is always serious geological disaster including
landslides, flying rocks, etc in mountain area.
Fig. 2: The accident No. and death No. with more than 3 persons (2008)
Res. J. App. Sci. Eng. Technol., 4(5): 526-529, 2012
528
15
10
5
0
10
5 6
2
3
1 1 2
Fa
ll 
Ro
ll 
Fi
xt
ur
e c
ol
lis
io
n 
Sl
id
e c
ol
lis
io
n 
Re
ar
-e
nd
/h
ea
d 
on
 
He
ad
-o
n/
fa
ll 
to
 w
ate
r
Co
lli
sio
n 
fir
e/s
ec
on
da
ry
   
   
   a
cc
id
en
ts 
 
He
ad
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ol
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Fig. 3: Vehicle type in large accident
 
Fig. 4: Formulation of large traffic accident
 Different area takes different method, such as doing
bolt, concrete, hanging fence, setting up warning 
signs. Usually nothing is done in most areas, just lie
on the maintenance workers’ observation and remove
danger timely. 
C Weather effect the mountain road safety. Ice and fog
have bigger impact on the road. 
C The tunnel equipment is not complete. There are
more tunnels in mountain area, with inadequate
safety equipment, and lack of lighting, ventilation
and relative equipment, even without reflective signs
or any facilities. 
C Poor mountain highway alignment. The road in
Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, Chongqing is poor, steep
slope, sharp curves , long downhill and uphill. For
the historical reasons, many roads are rebuilt on the
old road, and do not meet the standards
specifications. Limited to the funds permit, only the
dangerous sections is rebuilt.
In the general, some funds are put in the remediation
of hazardous road sections in China. But with social
development, the need of safety increase and more efforts
should make to improve traffic security situation. 
SAFETY POLICY OF MOUNTAIN 
ROAD IN CHINA
Based on the infrastructure and accident characters,
the mountain road safety technology of the policy are
given as follows:
 
Ensures of security facilities maintenance costs: 
Under normal circumstances, the maintenance costs are
just enough for the facilities installation, and not enough
for the post-maintenance. So a lot of guardrails are not
repaired after been destroyed. It is recommended that
formulation of relevant policies is made to ensure the
funding sources. 
Economic, adaptability, consistent of the guardrails in
mountain road: In the survey, different provinces have
different protection facilities. The main problems of the
current guardrail are theft protection higher investment
and higher maintenance etc. Improvements must be made
to the existing safety facilities with full consideration of
regional development and mountain features.
Increase the safety awareness of road users is a
fundamental strategy: Increase the safety awareness of
road users, particularly the residents along the road is very
important. In the survey there are many pedestrians cross
the road or even the expressway and the motorcycles,
tricycles shown in the expressway. The road safety
environment is bad. Hence it is necessary to strengthen
education and publicity, and enhance the safety awareness
of users and residents along the mountain road.
Res. J. App. Sci. Eng. Technol., 4(5): 526-529, 2012
529
Serious geological disasters in mountain road: Severe
geological disasters are a more serious problem in
mountain road, especially in Sichuan earthquake area. The
landslides, flying rocks occurred sometime. So special
treatment and relevant technical solutions should be taken
in geological disasters.
Improve the road alignment of mountain road can
fundamentally improve road safety: The poor road
alignment of road in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan,
Chongqing is the one reason of the traffic accident. For
historical reasons, many roads are rebuilt on the old road.
Therefore, significant improvements in road safety must
improve the road alignment.
CONCLUSION
The safety situation in the mountain road will abstract
more and more social concerns. After the economic
development, more concern on safety is the necessary step
in social development. The mountain road accidents and
the existing traffic safety facilities is analyzed to find out
reasons of the accident and weaknesses of existing
facilities, which will help to further improve traffic safety.
This safety situation of mountain road is serious with
the analysis of accident and current safety guarding
service. Road safety policy is given related to funding,
guardrail, road user safety awareness, geological disaster
and  alignment  improvement. It is hoped the policy will
provide to the road manager for further improvement of
the mountain road safety.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
This study is supported by the National Science and
Technology Support Project (2009BAG13A00).
REFERENCES
Guang, X. and C. Ma, 2007. Analysis of rural road traffic
accidents and traffic safety countermeasures.
Highway, 4: 128-130.
Ji, D., 2007. Analysis and policy of black spot of accident
in rural road. Transportation World, 6: 116-117.
Li, S., 2003. Major road traffic management measures in
western mountains. J. Chongqing Jiaotong Univ.,
Vol. 6. 
Xu, W., 2005. Analysis of Traffic Safety in China.
Transport. Technol. Vol. 5. pp. 
Yang, Y., 2009. Safety engineering implementation in
mountain road. Shanxi Build. 11:  55.
Zhang, B.O., 2006. Traffic safety and accident prevention
measures in mountain road. Highway Transport, 12:
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Zhen, W., 2009. Mountain road safety settings. Traffic
World, 18: 131-132.
Zhu, H. and T. Liu, 2009. Traffic Safety Analysis and
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Safety Situation and Policy on Mountain Highway of China

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Safety Situation and Policy on Mountain Highway of China

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