Project

The high priority focus areas for road safety actions based on impact assessment are:

•  • Motorcycle (Okada) Safety
•  • Pedestrian Safety
•  • Safety Engineering and Road Improvement
•  • Child Passenger Safety
•  • Driving Under Influence (DUI)
•  • Truck Safety
•  • Distracted Driving

The overall goal of our initiative is the prevention of the unacceptably high rates of motor vehicle crashes and fatalities in Nigeria. Our intervention plan was developed using a more holistic approach based on:

•  • Education/ Awareness
•  • Safety Enforcement
•  • Advocacy/ Legislation
•  • Safety Engineering and Road Improvement

This approach is aimed at addressing road safety from multiple angles and reaching all road users including pedestrians.

Our interventions piloted in Lagos state in 2006, with a view to replicating our achievements in other cities as Lagos houses 10% of the country’s population, 5% of roadways and 35% of the nation’s traffic with a resultant daily congestion and increased exposure to risks of road crashes within the environment.
However, our interventions have been expanded to other parts of the country namely Abuja, Yobe, Niger, Ondo, Delta, Imo, Rivers and Bayelsa states. More states would be impacted in the course of time.

WHERE WE ARE

SAFETY ENGINEERING & ROAD IMPROVEMENT

Between 2009 and 2011, Arrive Alive Road Safety Initiative (AARSI) successfully identified and corrected four school zone Hot-Spots (Accident prone zones), by installing road furniture including vertical signs, within the Lagos metropolis:

• Osborne Road Bend in Ikoyi
• Ogudu Junction, along Oworoshoki/Toll Gate expressway
• Anthony Link Road and
• Keffi Street in Ikoyi.

Two schools are located around Anthony link road and five around Keffi. At peak periods, over 3000 school children cross the roads at the two locations and an average of 3 accidents a month and 3 a week involving the children, were recorded at Anthony and Keffi respectively.

Our recent study showed that AARSI’s intervention at the hot spots have had positive impact on the lives of people who live/work around the spots, as no crash has been recorded since the corrections.

AARSI procured and donated Breathalysers to the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) Abuja, Lagos and Niger states (the Safe Road Corridor project along Suleja-Mokwa-Bida-Lambata) for use in the implementation of DUI project. 48 officers of the FRSC and 9 of LASTMA were trained to use the equipment to check drunk drivers on the Nigerian roads.
This was with a view to creating the impression that drunk drivers could be apprehended on the Nigerian highways which would reduce the number of drunk drivers and ultimately reduce the number of drugs and alcohol related crashes on our roads.

FRSC officer administering a sobriety check on a commercial driver and the results of the test

Sobriety Checks being administered to commercial bus drivers at the Ojota Garage Park

In September 2006, AARSI successfully collaborated with government agencies and Parliament to draft and adopt new motorcycle safety regulations for motorcycle taxis. These new regulations limit motorcycle taxis to specific routes and operating hours, allow only one passenger per motorcycle, and mandate safety apparel for riders and passengers.

Between then and June, 2011, AARSI held several pre-sensitization workshops for motorcycle operators in Lagos, Abuja, Niger, Imo and Bayelsa states as well as procured and distributed over 20,000 tropicalised crash helmets across the country. This has served as a springboard for the safety riding training as well as the implementation of the crash helmet pilot scheme.

TRUCK SAFETY
In collaboration between AARSI and the Road Safety Coalition on one hand and between AARSI and the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) on the other, AARSI in its on-going National Truck Safety Campaign moved to reduce the menace of truck related accidents in the country.

With a view to making them visible at periods of poor visibility, AARSI partnered with the Road Safety Coalition to fix retro-reflective tapes on 11,500 trucks in 3 states – Lagos, Yobe and Abuja, sponsored by Chevron Nigeria Ltd.
In the same vein, AARSI partnered with the FRSC to fix tapes on 8,500 trucks in 5 states – Delta, Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo and Ondo states, sponsored by Agbami Partners.
With the tapes, whether stationary or in motion, the trucks are made visible and therefore on coming vehicles are prevented from running into the sides or rear, thereby reducing truck related fatalities on our roads.

Participants were given lectures on road safety with special emphasis on Truck Safety – including the dangers of non visibility of trucks, fatigue driving and phoning/texting while driving, which causes many deaths on Nigeria’s roadways each year. Also, a road safety device (wake-up) was donated and distributed to alert long distance drivers against falling asleep on the wheels.

All the reports on truck safety