Anthropometric Seat Design for Bus Drivers in Southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Most buses used in Nigeria are imported; thus, the anthropometric dimensions of the citizens of the country of manufacture were used for the seat design. Poorly designed seats due to a mismatch in anthropometric measurements may lead to musculoskeletal disorders. Hence, there is a need to design an appropriate seat for particular bus drivers. This study aimed to obtain anthropometric dimensions of Nigerian bus drivers and design an appropriate driver’s seat based on the collected dimensions. Relevant anthropometric variables necessary for the driver’s seat design were obtained from 150 randomly selected male bus drivers from seven towns in Ogun, Oyo and Lagos states. Seat dimensions of 50 urban buses in heavy and medium automobile categories were considered. The means, standard deviations and 5th, 50th and 95th percentiles were calculated. The existing seat dimensions were compared with the required anthropometric measurements of the drivers for the seat design. It was found that the current seat measurements differed from the suggested seat dimensions. The study highlighted that in designing and producing bus seats for Nigerian bus drivers, their anthropometric data should be considered. The study recommended that the dimensions of the driver’s seat should be 46.45-50.45 cm (seat height); 39-48.26 cm (seat depth); 46.83 cm (seat front width); 53 cm (backrest height); 49-58.26 (backrest depth); and 90° to 130° (seat backrest angle).