Why do three-wheelers carrying schoolchildren suffer very low fatal crashes?

• It was found from historical records that three wheelers carrying schoolchildren hardly get involved in fatal crashes.
• It was also found that most fatal crashes happen on straight section in a rear end or side-swipe from same direction.
• It was found that three wheelers carrying children get the maximum safety from heavy vehicles in the form of lateral and longitudinal gaps.
• The gaps are significantly larger than those observed corresponding to three wheelers without children.
• This phenomenon is more prominent at speeds ranging from 40 to 80 km/h.

This paper investigates the possible causes of low fatalities in three-wheelers (autorickshaw) carrying schoolchildren in India. The data was collected in the form of First Information Report (FIR) from local police stations from 2007 to 2012 and video-graphic surveys were done on four arterial roads running through Ludhiana, Punjab, India. Surveys were also done on one subarterial road near school zone which was used by three-wheelers carrying schoolchildren. The objective of the study was to investigate the hypothesis that drivers behave differently while following or overtaking three-wheelers carrying children. Many researchers have investigated the effect of passengers on the driver of the same vehicle, but there was no evidence of any study which investigated the effect of child passengers on nearby vehicles. It was found that heavy vehicles maintain more gaps while following or overtaking three-wheelers carrying children as compared to those not carrying children. It was also found that this effect is more prominent at speeds higher than 40 km/h. On the other hand lighter vehicles keep the highest lateral and longitudinal gaps to heavy vehicles and three-wheelers without children respectively.