An Anthropological Study of People's Attitudes and Beliefs on High Traffic Accident Locations

Abstract

In the competitive world that is developing day by day, man is moving forward rapidly. In this competitive world man has to be impatient with his daily activities. This competitiveness and impatience cause many accidents not only at home and at the office but also on the road, leads to many road traffic accidents. Some people believe that a kind of in-human power in these places cause to kill people because many traffic accidents are reported every year at certain days and times. The objective of this research was to identify the attitudes and beliefs of the people regarding the places where traffic accidents occur frequently and to study the scientific background behind them. The samples of the research contained 50 respondents, including 15 residents each from three locations where road traffic accidents occur more frequently in Embilipitiya Divisional Secretariat applying random sampling method and purposive sampling method was used to selected 05 traffic police officers from the traffic section to get the statistical records of the accidents. Interview and observation methods were used to collect data. All respondents from three locations said that the road accidents are happening more frequently due to the in-human power of these places. Because of these beliefs, villagers are doing several religious practices in these places with the intension of minimizing these road accidents. However, by analyzing the comparative results scientifically, it is revealed that road traffic accidents are happening with the influence of many factors such as personal, non-personal, natural and physical than to the in-human power that the people are believing. It is concluded that the physical location of the places and impatience of the drivers are the main factors that affect the recorded number of road traffic accidents in studied locations.