‘Pedestrians Account For 38% Of Africa’s Road Traffic Deaths’

Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr Boboye Oyeyemi has said that 38 per cent of all African road traffic deaths are from pedestrians.
Oyeyemi stated this in a presentation on Non-Motorised Transportation (NMT) at the General Assembly of the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) in Dakar, Senegal.
The corps’ Public Education Officer, Mr Bisi Kazeem, reported the presentation in a statement issued in Abuja last Wednesday.
Kazeem quoted Oyeyemi as saying that globally, 23 per cent of road traffic deaths involved motorcyclists; 22 per cent, pedestrians; five per cent, cyclists, 31 per cent, motorists and 19 per cent, unspecified road users.
The FRSC boss explained that 84 per cent of the roads in low-income and middle-income countries where pedestrians were present carried traffic at 40 km/h and above.
According to him, most of the roads in those societies have no footpaths, and where the footpaths exist, there are issues of “encroachment, truncation and abuse/misuse by motorists.
In addition, there is lack of protective features that totally segregate pedestrian lanes to prevent their usage by other road users, he noted.
These, in addition to speeding by motorists that knock them down, account for the high rate of road traffic deaths among pedestrians and cyclists.
“Pedestrians have a 90-per-cent chance of surviving car crashes at 30 km/h or below, but less than a 50-percent chance of surviving impacts at 45 km/h or above.
“Pedestrians risk about 80-per cent chance of being killed at a collision speed of 50 km/h as opposed to a 10-per cent risk at a speed of 30 km/h,’’ Oyeyemi said.
The corps marshal said that bicycle was a “mobility of pride” at a particular point in Nigeria, used with pride by different classes of income earners.