Improving Road Safety
in the OIC Member States
172
Transportation with tankers and trailers has increased since the discovery of oil in Nigeria.
Between 2007 and June 2010, a total of 4.017 tanker/trailer crashes were recorded on Nigerian
roads, resulting in 4.076 persons being killed in crashes involving petrol tankers. Commercial
vehicle owners task their drivers to generate more profit, therefore the drivers tend to drive as
fast as possible in poorly maintained vehicles resulting in more accidents (Ukoji, 2014).
Minibuses are the most popular means of travel for intercity transportation in Nigeria, resulting
that fatal accidents involving minibuses are most prevalent on highways. Most of the accidents
that involve lorries and trucks also occur on highways, given the fact that they transport
agricultural products to cities (Ukoji, 2014). For intra-city transportation in Nigeria, cars are
also popular. However, poor vehicle maintenance and inability to observe safety measures often
lead to fatal accidents. Most of the crashes involving cars were reported in metropolitan areas.
Mechanical and vehicle related factors that can result in fatal road accidents include un-
roadworthy vehicles, poor vehicle maintenance, tyre blowouts, poor lights and broken-down
vehicles on the road without proper warning signs (Ukoji, 2014). The government of Nigeria has
introduced a few measures to improve vehicle safety. There is for example a free safety check
for all vehicles on the highway. Defects are identified and brought to the attention of the owners
of the vehicles without the issuance of tickets, penalties or fines. In 2014 more than 230.000
vehicles were checked under this arrangement. The introduction of speed limiters on
commercial vehicles as well as the implementation of a standard school bus design might
contribute to safer vehicles in Nigeria(Federal Road Safety Corps, 2014) .
Pillar 4: Road users
The poor driving culture in Nigeria is generally acknowledged. The utter disregard by road users
for traffic laws underlined by the strong religious belief of many Nigerians contribute to the poor
driving culture (Sumaila, 2013).
Most of the fatal road accidents occur in weekends and on Mondays according to Sumaila, 2013.
This is partially the result of social activities and several religious activities that take place over
the weekend. Most youths have limited driving experience and in the weekends drink-driving
and night-time driving further impairs their driving ability (Sumaila, 2013; Ukoji, 2014). On
Mondays drivers from transport companies may try to recoup weekend expenses when they
overload passengers and speeding to complete more trips.
Human error such as fatigue, lack of skill, drunkenness, speeding and carelessness have become
the main contributing factors for traffic crashes (Federal Road Safety Corps, 2013). In addition,
public awareness of traffic and safe driving is needed. Thus, the government of Nigeria has
launched intensive road safety campaigns, strengthened enforcement strategies, driving school
standardisation programmes and introduced medical exams for commercial drivers.
Pillar 5: Post-crash response
Nigeria does have multiple emergency telephone numbers but lacks emergency room injury
surveillance systems (Ukoji, 2014). Currently, only one toll free emergency line is designated for