Descriptive Analysis of Road Traffic Crashes in Federal Capital Teritory, Abuja, Nigeria

Abstract

The yearly total number of fatalities due to road accidents in Abuja has been consistently above 200 over the past few years. Although the fatality trends are declining and increasing (unstable), the actual figure is still at an alarming stage. In order to help in reducing the number of road accident and fatalities, the availability of a reliable and comprehensive road accident database and analysis system is critical to understand the pattern of accident causation.

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) plays a major role in road accident data collection and throughout the years, there has been an abundance of data available for analysis. In order to help in reducing the number of road crashes and fatalities, the availability of a reliable and comprehensive road crashes database and analysis system is critical to understand the pattern of accident causation.

However, the existing road crashes system in Nigeria is focused onto record management without basic data analysis. A new advanced data analysis system can be developed to take advantage of the available accident data. Road crashes characteristics gathered by FRSC were collected from their Accident Record Office, structured and segregated into a new comprehensive database system. Better structured data will create conditions for deeper analysis, aiding in the formulation of evidence-based research on road safety and enabling better road safety interventions as well as performance monitoring. The analysis of accident causes in this study indicates that Speed violation and lack of Control by careless driving are the predominant accident causes and most of the RTC cases occurred in the routes that lead to Abuja Municipal. Also, RTCs in the night were higher than the day because most workers travel both early in the morning and late in the night in order to avoid traffic jam.