ROAD SAFETY With JONAS AGWU
Last week, I reminded you of the number of days remaining before another season of celebrations. As I focus on the second part of my write up, I need to also remind you that it is now 21days to this year’s Christmas. But while you are preparing to roll the red carpets and beat the drums, even as we are getting frantic over the new variant of COVID-Omicron, please remember that one of the pandemic that has been with us for years and is often ignored by almost all is road traffic crashes which yearly kills 1.35 million people, meaning that an average of about 32 – 42 people are killed daily on the world’s roads while 20 million to 50 million people are injured or disabled in road collisions.
According to the World Health Organization, 90percent of these deaths occur in low and middle income countries where 5098 people or 81percent of the world’s population live and own about 20percent of the world’s vehicles. Nigeria has its fair share of this madness called road traffic crashes. This explains why the new leadership of the FRSC is working on various strategies such as review of the driver’s license scheme, standardization of driving schools and the Road Transport Safety Standardisation Scheme, RTSSS among others to redress the trend.
The World Health Organization maintains that the African Region tops the worlds road accident index with the highest mortality rate of 28.3 deaths per 100, 000 populations. More than half of all global road traffic deaths occur among young adults between 15 and 44 years of age. It notes that 73percent of all global road traffic fatalities are males. Vulnerable road users- pedestrians, cyclists and motorcyclist it further notes account for a much greater proportion of road traffic collisions in low income and middle income countries than in high income countries.
As a response to this epidemic, the WHO report on Road Traffic injury identifies a number of risk factors influencing crash involvement which amongst others are inappropriate and excessive speed, presence of alcohol, medicinal or recreational drugs, Fatigue, travelling in drunkenness, what we call night travel, defects in road designs, layout and maintenance, having youth driving in the same car and poor eye sight of road users. The same report identifies non-use of seatbelt and child restraints, inappropriate or excessive speed among other factors influencing crash severity.
The column is today focusing on the effects of speed on crashes and crash severity and the need for Speed enforcement because WHO identifies speed enforcement, mandatory seat belt for adults, child seatbelt or restraints, alcohol and drugs control as the three most vital road safety interventions that works. The global concern is over speed enforcement especially in built up areas which is why the United Nations is clamoring for a speed limit of 30km/h in built-up areas. Speed is at the core of the traffic injury prone. The physical layout of the road and its surrounding can bought encourage and discourage speed. However, crash risk increases as speed increases especially at road junctions and while overtaking. A good number of road users are guilty of this even though we would rather blame the other driver for our errors.
The higher the speed of a vehicle, the shorter the time a driver has to stop and avoid a crash. A car travelling at 50km/h will typically require 1.3 meters in which to stop, while a car travelling at 40km/h will stop in less than 8.5 metres. An average increase speed of 1km/h is associated with a 3 per cent higher risk of a crash involving an injury.
Travelling at 5km/h above a road speed limit of 65km/h results in an increase in the relative risk of being involved in a casualty crash that is comparable with having a blood alcohol concentration of 0.05g/dl. For car occupants in a crash with an impact speed of 80km/h, the likelihood of deaths is 20 times what it would have been at an impact speed of 30km/h.
It is because of the grave risk involved, that countries the world-over, including Nigeria set and post speeds limit, because controlling vehicle speed can prevent crashes from occurring and reduce the impact with which the occur, thus lessening the severity of injuries sustained by the victim. In Nigeria, the maximum speed on the expressway is 100km/h for private cars and 90km/h for taxis and buses while at built up areas such as commercial and residential areas, 50km/h is the speed limit. However, a safe conscious driver is always counselled to adhere to the common sense limit by adjusting his speed to suit the environment, his mental state, vehicle condition and level of expertise. A drive across most Nigerian roads would shock you, even at built up areas, the appropriate speed is not posted to guide motorists. Since human behavior is dictated by the structures, it is important that apart from posting speed in relevant traffic regulations, our road signs must also reflect specific speed allowed. Countries like France and the Netherlands have employed this approach and seen it work especially in France where speed was used to reduce death by 20 per cent.
However, it must be noted that setting and posting speed limit, must be accompanied by sustained vehicle enforcement of these limit. However, we must note that to solve the speed problem or other traffic behavior, there must be a change in infrastructural design, which make surveillance easy and effective. The use of speed camera is also good but it is highly cost effective means of reducing road crashes, the introduction of traffic calming measures whose objectives among others include slowing speed, reducing frequency and severity of collisions, increase safety for non-motorized users is also good traffic-calming measures such as narrowing of streets, giving priority to pedestrians and bicyclist, speed breakers (road humps) roundabouts, which are often backed up with speed limits of 30km/h, approved speed can also be imposed on traffic through design features that limit the speed of the vehicles. Speed level can also be affected by developing a safer infrastructure- this can involve modifying the road environment to reduce traffic flow and vehicle speed, thereby providing protection from crashes and reducing injury rate. Such measures include segregating high speed and low speed road users, or discouraging vehicle from entering certain areas.
But before we crucify government or FRSC for not doing enough, we must reflect on our responsibilities as citizens and corporate players. The speed watch challenge, an initiation designed by Essex Police and South end-on Sea Borough Council to demonstrate to pupils the dangers of speeding vehicles through hands-on, real life experience is a pointer. The three stages process allows pupils working to measure speed of vehicles using speed detection Camera (speed guns) and other facilities. The novelty is that the pupils are given the opportunity of speaking to the driver caught speeding who in most cases where embarrassed as they were unable to justify their actions to the pupils. Similar examples abound in even African countries such as South Africa and Ghana.
My take is that since experts agree that risk taking is embedded in genes, to change the driving habit, we must change our structures.
This is because if we design roads for high speed in the city, city will speed. But while we wait for change in infrastructure, the cheapest is for you to drive by the speed limit, ensuring that seat belt and child restraints are used. That’s the way we can collectively keep death, off our roads.
