The Quality of Data for Road Safety Assessment in Developing Countries: Observation of Traffic Behaviour and Conflicts in Nigeria

Road traffic crashes are described as a major public health problem affecting especially those living in developing countries, who unfortunately have minimum means and resources of tackling the menace (WHO, 2016). Whilst measures have been developed and implemented in an attempt to achieve crash reduction, there has been limited success in developing countries and the crash rate keeps increasing. Partly to blame are the lack of empirical research and high quality crash data. Data do exist – but their reliability is questionable, with respect to the data collection methods used and underreporting. This study, undertaken in Nigeria, (Nigeria has the highest fatality rate of 33.7 deaths per 100,000 population per year in Africa above the regional average of 24 deaths per 100,000 population. WHO, 2013), aimed to develop surrogate safety measures based on systematic observation of driver behaviour and traffic conflicts using human observers and video recorders. The emphasis is on the importance of research in understanding processes causing traffic crashes, and formulating strategies based on information collected. The ultimate goal is to introduce a simple, reliable and efficient method for traffic safety assessment using local available resources. The methodology was based on collecting data (traffic volume, speed measurement, road user behaviour and conflicts) from a semi-signalised location in an urban area. Data was analysed using the Traffic Conflict Technique. Results highlight the applicability of surrogate safety measures in traffic safety assessment in a developing country and demonstrates that quality data needed for road safety assessment in developing countries could be collected over a short period of time by making use of resources which are readily available. This type of study can provide reliable and detailed evaluation of safety compared to the use of accident data and clearly shows that research results can be transferred and used in practice.