Road safety and security on African roads, Nigeria road as a case study

Abstract

The paper attempts to look into the causes of road crashes leading to deaths on African roads with Nigeria as a case study. These roads falls along the major highway linking the Southern Seaports with the Northern part of the country and been listed as one of the 23 most dangerous roads in the world. The paper also enumerates and explains causes of crashes and insecurities on the road. It also looks at the establishment of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) as the Federal Government lead agency and its resolve to reduce the occurrence of road traffic crashes and its severity through the use of the 6Es intervention strategies approach. The road factor remains an important issue in road safety/security in addition to Environmental and Mechanical factors.It was shown that with the solution proffered below about 25% reduction in crashes with better security have been achieved through:Provision of heavy duty recovery and tow vehicles, patrol vehicles, ambulances.Funding of aggressive public enlightenment campaigns, establishment of standard driving schools to train drivers.Standardization of the country's vehicle licensing.FRSC has a 6-point approach to the problem called 6Es: Engineering, Enlightenment, Environment, Education, Enforcement, Evaluation.