Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
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Fines for offences such as excessive speed, license infringements, or operation of un-roadworthy
vehicles are often regarded as normal operating expenses by drivers. Most drivers prepare for
such fines by setting funds aside at the start of operations to sort their encounters with road
safety officials. This is a result that the penalties are not severe enough to dissuade traffic
infringements (Sumaila, 2013).
Pillar 2: Roads and mobility
In 2011, Nigeria had an estimated road network comprising a length of about 194.000
kilometres, the second longest network in Africa (Sumaila et al., 2013). Given the relatively large
geographic area, the road network is relatively sparse. With a large population of people and
relatively high car ownership (7,6 million vehicles) this results in intense traffic pressure on the
road network in Nigeria (Sumaila, 2013; Ukoji, 2014).
The urbanisation of Nigeria has taken a significant impact on fatal road crashes. The fast growing
cities and the high rate of rural-urban migration increased the pressure on urban infrastructure,
particularly transportation. Large metropolitan areas (e.g. Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Kaduna etc.)
face new problems that are typical to cities facing increasing traffic demand and congestion. The
general impatience and ill-tempered nature of road users and conflicts between pedestrians and
other road users also contribute to a high number of crashes (Ukoji, 2014).
There are particular months where the number of traffic fatalities are significant higher than
other months. Compared to other months, December, March, July and April have the highest
number of traffic fatalities. . This mainly has to do with festive and seasonal periods in these
months. For example Christians celebrate Christmas in December and Easter in April or March.
Within these period people travel a lot to celebrate with their family (Federal Road Safety Corps,
2013; Ukoji, 2014)
The high number of traffic fatalities in July is affected by the rainy season, when road markings
are less visible, bridges collapse, trees fall and rivers flood. Other environmental factors include
Harmattan winds, sun reflection, heavy winds, pot holes and unsurfaced roads (Ukoji, 2014).
The government’s inability to appropriately budget and monitor road construction and
maintenance contributes to fatal crashes. Criminal networks have also taken advantage of poor
road conditions on certain highways to set ambushes to rob travellers, causing fatal car
accidents in the process (Ukoji, 2014).
Pillar 3: Vehicles
The use of non-standard and unsafe vehicles contributes to the high number of crashes in the
country. The main reason that there are a lot of non-standard and unsafe vehicles in use is that
there are no applied vehicle standards (World Health Organisation, 2015b).
The study of Ukoji 2014 shows that between June 2006 and May 2014, cars, buses and
lorries/trucks are involved in more recorded road crashes than the other vehicle types.