Road traffic accident trends in Nigeria

Abstract

(Received 21 June 2005; in final form 7 February 2006)1. IntroductionRoad traffic accidents (RTAs) are a common cause ofdisability and also a leading cause of death all over theworld (Andrade and Jorge 2000, Ansari et al. 2000, Kopitsand Cropper 2005). For example, in Saudi Arabia, 81% ofdeaths in Ministry of Health hospitals are due to RTAs and20% of their hospitals beds are occupied by traffic accidentvictims (Ansari et al. 2000). Different patterns of RTAsmay be observed in different parts of the world and atvarious times.No two countries have exactly the same pattern of RTA.Whilst some countries may be seeing high rates of RTAs asthey develop, others may be experiencing decreasing ratesas they develop. Several reasons have been cited for this(Asogwa 1992), including poor state of the roads, poorstate of the vehicles, use of alcohol whilst driving, lack ofproper training in driving, etc.The purpose of this study is to review 48 years of data onRTAs in Nigeria and to compare the findings with otherstudies on the trend of RTAs in other parts of the worldand to cite possible reasons for the observations.2. Materials and methodsThe information on RTAs was obtained from the recordsof the Federal Road Safety Commission, Police Force andthe Save Accident Victim Association of Nigeria. Theperiod covered was from 1955 to 2003, and the dataanalysed were on the total number of cases of RTAreported, the number of persons injured and the number ofpersons killed in the accident. The records for 1961 wereincomplete and so the year 1961 was excluded from thestudy.3. ResultsTable 1 shows the number of reported cases of RTAs, thenumber of persons injured and the number of personskilled during the accident. Over the years, there was agradual reduction in the reported cases of RTAs, whilstthere was a steady increase in the number of injuredvictims and the number who died following a RTA(figure 1). In 1955, there were 6050 reported cases ofRTA, 4289 injured persons and 489 deaths followingRTAs, whilst in 2003, there where 16 795 reported casesof RTAs, 28 215 injured persons and 8672 deathsfollowing RTAs. The ratio of reported cases of RTA tonumber of deaths was 12.37:1 in 1955 while a similarratio in 2003 was 1.93:1.4. DiscussionRTAs are one of the leading causes of death in Nigeria withmany social, medical and financial implications (Asogwa1992, Oluwasanmi 1993). In the present study, it wasobserved that there was a progressive increase in thenumber of reported cases of RTAs and the fatalities up to1980. But after this, there was a decline in the reportedcases of RTAs, even though the fatalities had almostdoubled.In the present study, it was observed that between 1970and 1979, there were 285 699 reported cases of RTA, whilethere were 57 136 deaths, representing 20%. On the otherhand, the period between 1990 and 1999 recorded 188 012cases of RTA with 76 870 deaths, accounting for 41%.There may be several explanations for this. The oil boom inNigeria was experienced in the 1970s and many people werepossibly financially empowered and so were able to buy*Corresponding author. Email: clementosime@yahoo.com