Road Safety Nigeria

Summary of the presentation on Transport Safety

• Give correct, adequate and advance notice about your intentions to other road users.
• Do not assume anything you cannot see for yourself.
• Be prepared for unexpected and unsignalled stopping.
• Never assume another driver’s response will be the same as yours in any given situation.
• Never assume other drivers are as skillful as you.
• Always wear your seat-belt.
• Drive at an appropriate speed for the road conditions.
• Bear in mind that the aim of being on the road is to move from one place to the other safely.
• Avoid getting into situations where your safety depends on the response of another driver or vehicle.
• Always be aware of your area of safety.
• Always anticipate possible dangers.

A petrol tanker has crashed into a bus carrying a group of women to a Palm Sunday church service killing 19 people. The minibus was pulling out of a petrol station when it was hit by the tanker in Benue state. Seventeen people were killed instantly and two more died in hospital later. The driver of the petrol tanker was taken to hospital in a critical condition.

Over the last few months the content on the official Nigerian Federal Road Safety Commission web site has been extended to include, among other things, additional safety information relating to speeding, seat-belt use and motorcycle helmet use.

The ‘little white lie’ that grew, and grew, and grew …

After telling a lie to get out of paying a small fine and incurring a single penalty point on his licence for exceeding the speed limit by 6 miles per hour (10 kilometres per hour) a former, senior Australian judge digs himself into an increasingly deep ‘hole’ with the eventual prospect that he could spend at least two years in prison.

Read more about this story on the BBC website at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7967982.stm

It may sound like stating the obvious, but, as you drive along, the tyres are the only part of the vehicle in contact with the road.  Consequently, they affect the steering, braking and acceleration of your vehicle.  A badly maintained or damaged tyre is also more prone to getting punctured while driving, with the associated risk of loss of control of the vehicle.

Advice to Drivers

• Check tyre pressures regularly. (This should be done when the tyres are cold, as even a short journey can raise tyre temperatures and pressures.)
• Replace tyres that have developed bulges, lumps, cuts or tears.
• Replace tyres where the tread has worn below the limit.  (Some tyres have tread wear indicators, usually six or more small ribs across the bottom of the main tread grooves. When the tread surface is level with these ribs, the tyre needs to be replaced.)
• Use the correct type of tyres for your vehicle.

One month after the death of nine female footballers in a road crash, another accident claims the lives of eleven players and three officials of Jimeta United Football Club of Yola.

Sixteen players and three officials from Jimeta United Football Club were travelling from Yola to Abuja for a match with Voice of Nigeria Football Club. At Hawa Tido, a few kilometres from Jos, the driver lost control and the team bus crashed into a gully, killing most of the passengers.

(On 21 December 2008, nine female footballers from the Jos North Local Government Area of Plateau State perished in a road traffic accident.)

In December 2008, the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Commission was one of two recipients of a Prince Michael of Kent International Road Safety Award. The awards were sponsored by the FIA Foundation which is a leader in road safety campaigning and research, working with a global network of partners. The FIA Foundation also conducts environment and mobility research, and supports motor sport safety research.

After serveral months advance warning, the law requiring motorcycle riders and their passengers to wear crash helmets is now in effect from 1 January 2009.

Experience has shown, elsewhere in the world, that wearing correctly-fitting, well-designed helmets significantly reduces head injuries resulting from road traffic accidents.

However, not all has gone smoothly since the law was brought into force:

• Due to the costs of acquiring suitable equipment, some riders have been found to be using “improvised helmets” which offer little or no protection to the wearer. For example, officials in Kano have encountered riders wearing dried pumpkin shells on their heads.
• Many motorcycles have been impounded as a result of noncompliances and okada operators have staged protests as a result.
• For hygiene reasons, or other personal concerns, some passengers have been reluctant to don fully the helmets provided to them. Cases have even been seen where passengers have used one of their hands to hold the helmet aloft to maintain a gap between it and their their head, not only failing to get the benefit of the physical protection of helmet but also creating an additional safety risk.

As with all safety legislation, it is important that enforcement of the law is coupled with ongoing awareness and education activities that emphasise the benefits that the new measures will bring.

Euro NCAP is an international, European-based organization involved in testing the safety of motor cars, particularly their ability to protect occupants in an accident.  A ’star’ rating system is used.

FRSC chief Osita Chidoka has revealed that around 400 Nigerians die each month as a result of road traffic accidents.  His comments were made in Abuja during the walking and jogging exercise organised by FRSC in commemoration of the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims.  This regular Day of Remembrance was initiated by the World Health Organization in 2005 and is nominally on 16 November each year.