In this analysis, IFEDAYO OGUNYEMI examines the effect of overspeeding on road accidents in the country and the attendant issues affecting the transportation sector.
Despite the recent ranking of Nigeria as one of the countries in the world with the average speed allowed for road vehicles, speed limit violations account for about 55.14% of road crashes in the country in 2021, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have shown.
According to the NBS/FRSC data, a total 16,337 road crashes recorded in the year left 6,205 dead and 38,073.00 others injured. Cumulatively, 9,009 accidents were caused by speed limit violations.
It should be noted that with its average road speed of 55km/hr, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) ranked Nigeria 143 out of 162 countries with low-speed roads and among countries with the lowest speed range of 30-60 km/hr road speed.
In spite of this rating, a total of 4,283 road crashes were recorded across the country in Q1 2022. More than half – 2,561 (59.79%) – of such crashes were caused by speed limit violations. These were followed by wrongful overtaking – 290 (6.77%), sign light violation – 243 (5.67%), dangerous driving – 229 (5.35%) and tyre burst – 223 (5.21%) among others.
During the same period, Saturday Tribune reports that a total of 24,192 persons were involved in all of the crashes including the 1,834 persons who were confirmed dead by the FRSC from the 12,128 casualties recorded.
Similarly, in eighteen months covering Q4 2020 and Q1 2022 where a total of 24,992 road crashes were recorded across the country, 9,857 persons were confirmed dead by FRSC from the 67,926 casualties recorded. In total, 129,252 persons were involved in the crashes nationwide.
It is equally worthy of note that 14,215 of such crashes (representing 56.88%) over the course of the eighteen months were caused by speed limit violations. A concerned road user would therefore be worried as to why speed limit violation is responsible for a larger chunk of the road crashes recorded at a time the country boasts of being among countries with the world’s lowest road speed range.
Dataphyte reports that the average mean speeds are measured based on the average time taken to move from one city to another that is 80 kilometres apart while adding that such data is assessed using road quality as a parameter.
A 2021 report by Making Cities Safer noted that lower vehicle speeds is an important road safety measure that helps to reduce the impact and risks of crashes among other benefits such as the severity of injuries that result from such crashes.
The report’s observation comes on the heels of repeated warnings and admonitions by the FRSC for drivers to maintain speed limit regulations as part of efforts to engender the safety of roads for all road users and their properties.
According to the Nigeria Highway Code, the maximum legal speed a driver can travel on a road under ideal conditions differs. The maximum speed for motorcycles, private cars, taxis and buses, tankers and trailers, and tow vehicles (when towing and/or otherwise) on highways is between 45-80km/h and 45-100km/h on expressways.
Problems with Nigeria’s transport sector
On the correlation between road speed and accidents on Nigerian roads, transport and traffic planner and former Corps Education Officer of the Ogun State Road Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE), Abdulrahman Ajala, said the IMF ranking only measures the quality of road accessibility – the ease of reaching point A from point B.
He further listed problems affecting transportation efficiency in the country to include human errors, quality of the roads and vehicles, lack of linkages of roads to other forms of transportation such as air, water, rail etc. which can reduce the dependence and pressure on roads, and the failure to implement the national transport policy which has existed as a draft for years, maintaining that “it is only when these are done that we can say that in the nearest future, the sector will be better off.”
He however pointed out that speed is a fundamental factor in road accidents because it determines the severity of accidents and manoeuvrability in difficult situations, noting that any speed beyond 10km/hr is not bearable by human beings and there’s a possibility of crash when vehicles speed beyond that.
“The higher your speed, the lighter the vehicle becomes and the more difficult to control the vehicle during an accident. Drivers are supposed to move at a speed that is commensurate with the road and vehicle conditions but they don’t, hence the accidents.
“Road accidents in Nigeria are caused by human errors because there’s a large behavioural and cognitive deficiency among Nigerian drivers. Most drivers move vehicles without considering the road and vehicle conditions, other road users and even occupants of the vehicle they are in. What is the level of their driver’s education?
“Nigeria’s road traffic system is porous. Most jobless individuals in the country today find jobs in driving and the irony of it is that many of them fail to go through the licensing process even though there are issues in the licensing process because it doesn’t ensure that only good and competent drivers are on the road. Everyone in that process including regulatory agents and agencies are guilty of what we regard as human errors. Human beings construct, maintain, use and regulate the use of the roads and everywhere they have failed in their roles, there’s going to be a problem,” Ajala said.
Speed limiting device to the rescue
FRSC, the country’s road safety agency has, over the years, continued to express deep worry over the rising incidences of over-speeding recorded across the country, particularly as it continues to lead to the loss of lives and properties.
It, therefore, mandated that a speed limiting device be installed in all vehicles on the road as part of efforts to cut down the rate of road traffic crashes and the resultant loss of lives on the highways.
Earlier in 2022, former FRSC Corps Marshal, Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, mandated all of its men and officers to enforce the installation and use of speed limiting devices in vehicles that ply the country’s roads.
“Going by the high number of road accidents ascribed to speed, will it not be right to say the FRSC crusade of encouraging motorists to install speed limiting devices in their vehicles has failed?” Oyeyemi queried at the event.
It is reported that the compulsory use of the device is contained in the FRSC Establishment Act and the National Road Traffic Regulation since 2004 and retained in the subsequent amendments.
The device limits the speed in a vehicle to a prescribed level, making further acceleration impossible. The cost of purchase and installation of the device in 2016 was N36,000.
Aside from lowering and regulating a vehicle’s speed, a speed limiter device is believed to help a vehicle consume less fuel, cut down vehicle maintenance costs and slow down depreciation value, and impact positively on changing the individual driving behaviour.
However, there has been a constant violation of this regulation as at least 1,291 commercial vehicles were intercepted by FRSC for operating without speed limiting devices in Lagos State between January (611 vehicles) and February (680 vehicles) 2022 alone.
Why Nigerians disregard use of speed limit devices
Meanwhile, Ajala who is also a senior lecturer and head of Transportation Planning and Management Department at the Federal Polytechnic Ilaro, Ogun State added the implementation of speed limiting device crashed at inception because of the rigorous debate at the National Assembly and refusal of some states to domesticate it.
“We all know there was a serious debate at NASS. And it is one of the reasons the enforcement died down. We need to regulate the use of the roads but are the roads good? No one can go on a 3-4 km stretch without applying brakes which naturally renders the use of speed limiting devices useless. Our roads don’t give room for such exhaustive speed.
“We have FRSC and many road maintenance agencies trying to achieve the same goals. Have they been able to synergise to achieve such goals? FRSC has national road traffic strategies, do they get domesticated at the level of road agencies in individual states? There hasn’t been that cordial interaction that the FRSC strategies are understood by the state agencies. There should be a national road traffic conference where all agencies nationwide come with strategies to address the issues facing the sector in order to make the roads safer.
“How many roads are landscaped with appropriate road signs and signals? Are there facilities that enhance optimum road usage like directional arrows, layby, lane marking, traffic lights, cat eyes for identification at night? These are basic requirements that drivers are supposed to interact with on the roads to help and check driving behaviours like overspeeding,” he pointed out.
This report was produced under the Dataphyte Data and Development Reporting Fellowship 2022.
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