FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[001] The present invention relates to the field of medical science, and more particularly, the present invention relates to the cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards road traffic safety regulations among college-going students.

BACKGROUND FOR THE INVENTION:
[002] The following discussion of the background of the invention is intended to facilitate an understanding of the present invention. However, it should be appreciated that the discussion is not an acknowledgment or admission that any of the material referred to is published, known, or part of the common general knowledge in any jurisdiction as of the priority date of the application. The details provided herein the background if belongs to any publication is taken only as a reference for describing the problems, in general terminologies or principles or both of science and technology in the associated prior art.
[003] According to World Health Organization (WHO) approximately every year 1.35 million people die due to road traffic collision all over the world. It is one of the important causes of disability worldwide as nearly 20-50 million people sustain non-fatal injuries due to Road traffic accidents (RTAs). Most of the road traffic deaths are confided to low- and middle-income countries.As per the Global Status Report on Road Safety 2015, Road traffic accidents accounts for one of the leading and preventable cause of death among the young adults age group 15-29 year especially in developing countries and affects their GDP.The Haddon matrix describes the various risk factors like vehicle, environmental and human for RTAs.The main reasons for road traffic accident are found to be increasing over speed, poor following to traffic rules, driving while drinking, not bear seat belts and helmets, using mobile phone while driving, and poor road design. Young people usually encounter fatal collisions as compare to adults due to distracted driving. If effective actions are not taken timely, it is predicted 2.4 million deaths each year will be due to RTAs. According to a report published by Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 56 accidents occur every hour in India and nearly 14 people are killed in these accidents. India contributes to one in every 10 deaths due to RTAs worldwide.
[004] Road traffic injuries constituted the eighth leading cause of death in India in 2018. The biggest impact of RTAs is on the younger generation where 60% of Disability Adjusted life year (DALYs) caused due to road traffic accident is among the age group of (15-44) years, wherein 73% are males who is the productive and earning member for the families. Though, there are acts and laws for reducing road traffic accidents, still RTAs poses a great burden. Road traffic injuries and death can be prevented if there is effective implication of road safety interventions. Younger population being the future of our country holds great responsibility not only in increasing awareness regarding road safety but also in setting an example for others to adopt and improve healthy behavior. Thus, the present study is planned to assess the knowledge and attitude regarding the road traffic safety rules and to determine the extent of adherence to road traffic safety rules by the college going students of Uttarakhand.
[005] In light of the foregoing, there is a need for aCross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards road traffic safety regulations among college-going studentsthat overcome problems prevalent in the prior art.

OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION:
[006] Some of the objects of the present disclosure, which at least one embodiment herein satisfies, are as follows.
[007] The principal object of the present invention is to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art by providing aCross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards road traffic safety regulations among college-going students.
[008] An object of the present invention is to provide aCross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices toward road traffic safety regulations among college-going students that determine the knowledge, attitude, and practices related to road safety rules among college students.
[009] Other objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be more apparent from the following description, which is not intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION:
[010] The present invention provides a cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices toward road traffic safety regulations among college-going students.
[011] In one aspect of the present invention a cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards road traffic safety regulations among college-going students concludes that 91.3% of the college students knew the right age for getting a driving license but only 24.5% of students responded correctly for the blood alcohol concentration while driving.
[012] In another aspect of the present invention the most of the study participants had good attitudes toward road traffic rules and regulations, driving licenses, and road signs & symbols. 63-65% of the study participants responded that they always wear a belt or helmet while driving and keep a specific speed limit while driving, and never used mobile phones or play loud music while driving. RTAs can be minimized by strict enforcement of regulations by the road traffic police and through frequent road traffic awareness. But the self-responsibility by the drivers should also be there to bring about drastic change in minimizing RTAs.
[013] In another aspect of the present invention the there is still scanty concentration by the government in this zone as there is no particular agency where RTAs falls in. The vehicle issues, road planning, road safety legislations all come in divergent sectors leaving no one accountable.
[014] In another aspect of the present invention, there is a need for adopting system approach taking experience from developed countries for cutting the figures of RTAs.
[015] In another aspect of the present invention, the safe place, a better world lies in the hands of people, society, community and government.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:
[016] Reference will be made to embodiments of the invention, examples of which may be illustrated in accompanying figures. These figures are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Although the invention is generally described in the context of these embodiments, it should be understood that it is not intended to limit the scope of the invention to these particular embodiments.
[017] Figure 1: shows a graph for reasons for speed-up by the study participants.
[018] Figure 2: shows a graph for reasons for road traffic accidents by the study participants.
[019] Figure 3: shows a graph for reasons by the study participants in preventing road traffic accidents.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS:
[020] While the present invention is described herein by way of example using embodiments and illustrative drawings, those skilled in the art will recognize that the invention is not limited to the embodiments of drawing or drawings described and are not intended to represent the scale of the various components. Further, some components that may form a part of the invention may not be illustrated in certain figures, for ease of illustration, and such omissions do not limit the embodiments outlined in any way. It should be understood that the drawings and the detailed description thereto are not intended to limit the invention to the particular form disclosed, but on the contrary, the invention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the scope of the present invention as defined by the appended claim.
[021] As used throughout this description, the word "may" is used in a permissive sense (i.e. meaning having the potential to), rather than the mandatory sense, (i.e. meaning must). Further, the words "a" or "an" mean "at least one” and the word “plurality” means “one or more” unless otherwise mentioned. Furthermore, the terminology and phraseology used herein are solely used for descriptive purposes and should not be construed as limiting in scope. Language such as "including," "comprising," "having," "containing," or "involving," and variations thereof, is intended to be broad and encompass the subject matter listed thereafter, equivalents, and additional subject matter not recited, and is not intended to exclude other additives, components, integers, or steps. Likewise, the term "comprising" is considered synonymous with the terms "including" or "containing" for applicable legal purposes. Any discussion of documents, acts, materials, devices, articles, and the like are included in the specification solely for the purpose of providing a context for the present invention. It is not suggested or represented that any or all these matters form part of the prior art base or are common general knowledge in the field relevant to the present invention.
[022] In this disclosure, whenever a composition or an element or a group of elements is preceded with the transitional phrase “comprising”, it is understood that we also contemplate the same composition, element, or group of elements with transitional phrases “consisting of”, “consisting”, “selected from the group of consisting of, “including”, or “is” preceding the recitation of the composition, element or group of elements and vice versa.
[023] The present invention is described hereinafter by various embodiments with reference to the accompanying drawing, wherein reference numerals used in the accompanying drawing correspond to the like elements throughout the description. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiment set forth herein. Rather, the embodiment is provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. In the following detailed description, numeric values and ranges are provided for various aspects of the implementations described. These values and ranges are to be treated as examples only and are not intended to limit the scope of the claims. In addition, several materials are identified as suitable for various facets of the implementations. These materials are to be treated as exemplary and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention.
[024] The present invention provides a Cross-sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices toward road traffic safety regulations among college-going students.
[025] Study Design - Descriptive Cross-sectional study. Study Tools – Pre-designed, pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire via Google Forms.
[026] Study Duration – 4 months.
[027] Study Population- Students aged >18 years of age.
[028] Study Subjects- Students of various Professional courses.
[029] Respondent who is a social media user and gave consent to participate in the study. Forms that had >20% of the data missing are excluded from the study. Sample Size- Total 102 students are enrolled in the study. Sampling Technique- Convenient sampling technique. Data collection: Data is collected through Google forms.
[030] I. Section A consisted of questions pertaining to sociodemographic details.
[031] II. Section B had questions related to knowledge and attitude regarding road traffic safety rules.
[032] III. Section C had questions related to the practices opted by the study participants to prevent road traffic accidents.
[033] A pilot study is executed on 20 individuals and necessary changes are made in the form. Through a convenient sampling technique, study participants are enrolled in the study via e-mail and other social media Apps like WhatsApp, Facebook, and Instagram. With all the necessary instructions, the final google forms having both closed ended as well as open-ended questions are forwarded to the study participants. The study participantsare requested to fill the Google form out and forward the link of google form to their friends and acquaintances to fetch more responses from their network.
[034] Owing to the ethical consideration, before commencing the study, permission is obtained from the Institutional Ethical Committee. As study participants are invited through social media i.e., via email/WhatsApp/Facebook/Instagram, a brief description/instruction regarding the research purpose is made clear to them. Their participation in the study is only after they gave confirmation to the consent form. Privacy and confidentiality of the collected information are ensured.
[035] Data is entered in the Statistical Package for Social Sciences software (version 23). All the continuous variables are described as mean ± standard deviation and all the categorical variables are conferred in terms of frequencies and proportions. Microsoft Excelis used for making graphs, and charts.
[036] The present study is conducted on 102 college-going students. There are 50 (49.0%) females and 52 (51.0%) males in the study. The mean age of female study participants is 21.25 years while that of male participants is 22.14 years. Tables 1and 2show the socio-demographic details of the study participants.


[037] Table 3 shows the correct and incorrect responses by the study participants with respect to knowledge regarding road traffic safety regulations.

[038] Majority (91.3%) college students knew the right age for getting a driving license. Very few (24.5%) students responded correctly for the blood alcohol concentration while driving.

[039] As depicted from Table 4, Most of the study participants had good attitude towards road traffic rules and regulations, driving license, road signs & symbols. Figure/Graph 1shows that major reason for speeding up the vehicle by the study participants is delay in daily routine (51.96%) and least (0.98%) is empty roads.

[040] Table 5 describes the practice by the students to follow road traffic safety rules and prevent road traffic accidents. 63-65% study participants responded that they always wear belt or helmet while driving and keep a specific speed limit while driving, and never used mobile phone or play loud music while driving. More than 75% study participants always use indicators while turning and blow horn while overtaking. Majority (82.4%) responded that they never drank alcohol while driving. Figure/Graph 2 shows the response by the study participants for road traffic accidents. Maximum (36.8%) said that high speed upis first reason followed by alcohol influence (26.4%) which is the second most common reason, and third most common reason is mixed traffic (18.9%).Figure/Graph 3 shows the response by the study participants toprevent road traffic accidents. First reason stated by the studyparticipants to prevent road traffic accidents is following roadtraffic rules (18.8%) and driving tests (18.8%) respectively. Third most common reason is speed limitations in the city (15.1%).
[041] Road traffic accidents remains one of the major public health problems with high case fatality rate. Youngsters have significantly higher risk of having road traffic injuries and deaths as compared to other age groups. Road traffic safety awareness is the most important aspect towards safety concern for the college going students. The present study had nearly equal number of male and female participants. In the current study 91percent students knew the right age for getting a driving license. This finding is similar with a study conductedin Chennai among the dental students.
[042] While Ranjan DP et al. reported even much higher figures for this.[10] More than fifty percent of the study participants in this study knew the correct speed limit for driving in the city. Other studies have reported 55-66 percent of the study participants having correct knowledge for speed limit in the city. Regarding recently updated penalty for driving without license nearly 42 percent of the study participants had incorrect knowledge for the same.
[043] The findings are in contrast to the study by Senthil et al. However, Srivastava et al. reported in their study that less than 15 percent of study participants knew correct maximum grace period for expired driving license renewal. Reason for this may be that in Uttarakhand there is leniency for road traffic rules, even the preliminary tests conducted before issuing driving license are not strict. Though the government is trying to implement strict enforcement in issuing license still it looks like a long way to go. In this study, nearly 83 percent of the study participants had correct knowledge of traffic lights, surprisingly the findings reported by Ranjan DP et al. and Mahawar et al. had much lower values. The basic knowledge regarding traffic lights are inculcated right from childhood days, if this issue is address edit can help in preventing RTAs. Very few (24.5%) students responded correctly for the blood alcohol concentration while driving in our study, the findings are in sync with previous studies. There are around 35.3 percent study participants in this study which ansared incorrectly for the side where they should have to drive. Findings are almost in sync with the previous studies. Even the WHO has reported that among road traffic deaths, 27 percent deaths occur among the pedestrians and cyclists. This matter should be put into consideration as it could contribute to high RTAs.
[044] More than 90% of the study participants in the present study agreed to that pedestrian must be given importance regarding their security, the findings are similar to Ranjan DP et al. where 86 percent participants believed the same. The study participants had good attitude towards road traffic rules and regulations, driving license, road signs & symbols, however the findings did not correspond to the previous research. It is of prime importance that good attitude plays a major role in changing the behaviour and practice of the people, thus this should be encouraged right from childhood. Regarding practice, in this study, nearly 67 percent of the study participants always wore helmets while 8.8 percent never, a previous study also reported low helmet usage in which 30 percent wore helmet regularly while 49 percent occasionally.
[045] Sharma and Saini also reported that 54 percent of their study participants never wore helmet while driving. 65 percent of the study participants never used mobile phone or play loud music while driving. Similar findings have been reported by Sharma and Sainiand Jogand S et al. More than 75 percent of study participants always use indicators while turning and blow horn while overtaking, the findings are better than the observations by Ranjan DP et al., Salve et al., Yilmaz et al., Singh et al., Trivedi and Rawal. the universal health coverage in India in order to regulate the cost of medical services.
[046] There is still scanty concentration by the government in this zone as there is no particular agency where RTAs falls in. The vehicle issues, road planning, road safety legislations all come in divergent sectors leaving no one accountable. There is a need for adopting system approach taking experience from developed countries for cutting the figures of RTAs. A safe place, a better world lies in the hands of people, society, community and government. Their meagre roles can shape up the future generation.
[047] This study revealed that many college going students had good knowledge and attitude towards road traffic safety rules& regulations and majority of the students wear seat belts, helmets, use indicators and blow horn while driving. Students do feel that high speed and alcohol leads to most of the road traffic accidents.
[048] This can only be minimized by the strict enforcement of regulations by the road traffic police authorities and through periodic traffic awareness campaigns and road safety measures via signboards, posters, and mass media. A multi-disciplinary approach i.e., involving psychologists, sociologists, vehicle experts, doctors, and engineers for better designing of roads and traffic planning should be adopted. Drivers should develop more empathy towards other co-drivers and people walking on street. Primary care physicians can play an important role in preventing RTAs by adopting repeated advocacy measures, training the community people and handling the RTA patients, providing good hospital care along with timely referrals and managing rehabilitative services for people residing in remote areas. The primary care physicians should help in capacity building and train the people for best utilization of golden & platinum hours before hospital care are provided. Road safety should be the part of the universal health coverage in India in order to regulate the cost of medical services.
[049] There is still scanty concentration by the government in this zone as there is no particular agency where RTAs falls in. The vehicle issues, road planning, road safety legislations all come in divergent sectors leaving no one accountable. There is a need for adopting system approach taking experience from developed countries for cutting the figures of RTAs. A safe place, a better world lies in the hands of people, society, community and government. Their meagre roles can shape up the future generation.
[050] The disclosure has been described withreference to the accompanying embodiments herein and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained with reference to the non-limiting embodiments in the following description. Descriptions of well-known components and processing techniques are omitted so as to not unnecessarily obscure the embodiments herein.
[051] The foregoing description of the specific embodiments so fully revealed the general nature of the embodiments herein that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily modify and/or adapt for various applications such specific embodiments without departing from the generic concept, and, therefore, such adaptations and modifications should and are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the disclosed embodiments. It is to be understood that the phraseology or terminology employed herein is for the purpose of description and not of limitation. Therefore, while the embodiments herein have been described in terms of preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that the embodiments herein can be practiced with modification within the scope of the embodiments as described herein.

We Claim:

1) Across sectional study to assess the knowledge, attitude, and practices towards road traffic safety regulations among college-going students, the cross-sectional study concludes that 91.3% of the college students knew the right age for getting a driving license but only 24.5% of students responded correctly for the blood alcohol concentration while driving.

2) The cross-sectional study as claimed in claim 1, wherein the most of the study participants had good attitudes toward road traffic rules and regulations, driving licenses, and road signs & symbols. 63-65% of the study participants responded that they always wear a belt or helmet while driving and keep a specific speed limit while driving, and never used mobile phones or play loud music while driving. RTAs can be minimized by strict enforcement of regulations by the road traffic police and through frequent road traffic awareness. But the self responsibility by the drivers should also be there to bring about drastic change in minimizing RTAs.
3) The cross-sectional study as claimed in claim 1, wherein the there is still scanty concentration by the government in this zone as there is no particular agency where RTAs falls in. The vehicle issues, road planning, road safety legislations all come in divergent sectors leaving no one accountable.

4) The cross-sectional study as claimed in claim 1, wherein there is a need for adopting system approach taking experience from developed countries for cutting the figures of RTAs.

5) The cross-sectional study as claimed in claim 1, wherein the safe place, a better world lies in the hands of people, society, community, and government.

6) The cross-sectional study as claimed in claim 1, wherein descriptive cross-sectional study is conducted on 102 college students through a pretested questionnaire.