SPATIO-TEMPORAL PATTERN OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND TO THE STUDY
The role of transport in our daily activities cannot be overemphasized and without it, the necessities of life would be difficult to achieve. As wonderful as the role of transport may be in our daily activities, it has been noted to possess myriads of negative effects (Abdul and Ansa, 2012). Ogunsanya (1991) posited that despite the undisputed roles and impact of road transport in the efficient functioning of a society, one of the unavoidable negative consequences is accident occurrence. The high incidence of road accident tends to easily erode the positive effect of road transport in the nation‟s economy. This is why transport is described as the “maker and breaker” of the cities. Ogunsanya (2002) confirmed how transport has built cities over the year in some urban areas in Nigeria and how it has gradually destroyed them. Road traffic accidents have become common in everyday urban life.
According to Rune and Truls (2004) road traffic accident is any vehicular accident occurring on a public highway which includes collisions between vehicles and vehicles, vehicles and animals, vehicles and pedestrians or vehicle and fixed obstacles. Similarly, Astrom, Kent and Jovi (2006) posited that road traffic accident is a collision or similar incident involving a moving vehicle, resulting in property damage, personal injury or death. Agbonkhese, et al. (2013) were of the view that road traffic injuries are the leading cause of death among young people aged 15–29 years and that 91% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low-income and middle-income countries. Accidents may be fatal, resulting in deaths of the road users, passengers, drivers or pedestrians, or minor when it is not severe enough as to cause substantial hardship (Sarin, 1998).
Among all accidents, road traffic accidents claim the largest toll of human life and tend to be the most serious problem world over (Kual et al., 2005). Worldwide, the number of people killed in Road Traffic Accidents (RTA) each year is estimated at almost 1.2 million while the number of people injured could be as high as 50 million (WHO, 2004). Kopits (2005) posited that currently motor vehicle accidents rank 9th in order of disease burden and are projected to rank 3rd in the year 2020. In Africa, it has been estimated that 59,000 people lost their lives in road crashes in 1990 and this figure will be 144,000 people by 2020 (Kopits, 2005).
According to data from the Nigerian Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), Nigeria has the highest rate of death from motor accidents in Africa; leading 43 other nations in the number of deaths per 10,000 vehicles crashes (Obinna, 2007). The number of reported cases of fatal road traffic accidents in Nigeria has shown an increasing trend from 12,212 cases of accidents in 1995 to 13,913 in 1996 and 15,418 in 2004, indicating an increase of 13.9% in fatal road accidents from 1995 to 1996 (Central Bank of Nigeria, 1997). According to the FRSC Annual Abstract of Statistics (2008), between 2003 and 2007, a total of 225,891 accident cases were reported by the Nigeria Police Force, out of which 29,490 were fatal, 39,065 were severe cases, and 23,380 were minor cases. This trend of road traffic accident is however on the increase due to rapid increase in vehicular movement on Nigeria roads.
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SPATIO-TEMPORAL PATTERN OF ROAD TRAFFIC ACCIDENTS IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA
