Awareness of causes of road traffic accident and safety measures among drivers in Sokoto, North Western Nigeria

Abstract

Introduction:Significant numbers of people are dying and several are being injured on a daily basis as a result of road traffic accident. This is seen more in low socioeconomic communities and should be regarded as public health problem. This study aimed to determine the awareness of causes of road traffic accidents as well as safety measures among drivers in Sokoto State.

Methodology: This is a cross-sectional descriptive study; conducted in June 2010 in Sokoto metropolis. Self-administered semistructured questionnaire was used to interview the commercial, public and private drivers to determine their knowledge on the causes and preventive measures of road traffic accident.

Results: A total of 123 drivers were interviewed, 83(67.5%) of whom were public/private and 40(32.5%) commercial drivers.The gender distribution depicts 102(82.9%) male participants giving a male to female ratio of 4.9:1. There was nocommercial female driver in this study. Fourteen (11.4%) of these drivers started driving below the age of 18years.The majority 75 (61.0%) of participants possess tertiary education while 30 (24.4%) had no formal education.Ninety nine (80.5%) drivers have driving license, among whom 66 (66.7%) were reported to have been tested beforeissuance of the license.Regarding the location of driving, 44(35.8%) drive locally, 20(16.3%) mostly on highway and the remaining 59(48.0%) are both local and highway drivers. Only 31(25.2%) of the drivers interviewed were aware that there is asign on the road that indicate prohibition of overtaking.About the use of seat belt, 40(43%) of Private/public drivers and 7(23%) of commercial drivers use seat belt always,while 21 (23%) and 3 (11%) respectively use seat belt only some times. Significant number of the drivers 90(73.17%) interviewed believed that high rate of vehicular accidents are seen on bad roads, others said it is morefrequent on good roads. Nevertheless, 18 (14.6%) of all the drivers interviewed knew that vehicle tyre has anestimated life span or expiry date.

Conclusion: Knowledge of road signs and road traffic rules and guidelines among the drivers interviewed is inadequate. These drivers knowledge of causes of road traffic accident and means of prevention is fair. We recommend continuous awareness campaigns and enforcement of road traffic regulations in order to minimize the burden of road traffic crashes.

Keywords: road traffic accident, awareness, safety measures, drivers.