The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has said that 38 per cent of all African road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians.
He disclosed this while making a presentation in Dakar, Senegal on Non-Motorised Transportation (NMT) during the General Assembly of the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO).
Part of the statement signed by the Corps Public Education Officer, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem, quoted the Corps Marshal as saying that half of the world’s road traffic deaths occur among Motorcyclists (23 per cent ), Pedestrians (22 per cent), Cyclists (5 per cent), 31 per cent of deaths among car occupants and the remaining 19 per cent among unspecified road users.
The Corps Marshal said that “84 per cent of the roads in low-income and middle-income countries, where pedestrians are present, carry traffic at 40 km/h and above and have no footpaths, however, where the footpaths exist, there is the concern of encroachment, truncation, abuse/misuse by motorists and lack of protective features that totally segregate pedestrians and prevent its usage by other road users”.
Other reasons he gave are that pedestrians have a 90 per cent chance of surviving car crashes at 30 km/h or below, but less than a 50 per cent chance of surviving impacts at 45 km/h or above. He also said that pedestrians risk about 80 per cent chance of being killed at a collision speed of 50 kilometres/hour (km/h), as opposed to a 10 per cent risk at speeds of 30 km/h.
The statement also noted that at a particular point in history bicycle in Nigeria was a mobility of pride, a dream come true for the lower class and a celebrated mode even for the “well to do” in the society, but the oil windfall of 1973 brought about prosperity especially for the working class and opened up the transportation space.
