Road Safety Practices among Commercial Motorcyclists in a Rural Town in Nigeria: Implications for Health Education

Abstract

This cross-sectional, community-based study was carried out among commercial motorcyclists in Igboora. All the commercial motor parks in Igboora were visited and all the commercial motorcyclists who consented to participate in the study were interviewed. Information on the respondents' socio-demographic characteristics, and the practice of road safety measures was collected using an interviewer administered questionnaire. A total of 299 motorcyclists were interviewed. All (100%) of them were males. The mean age of the respondents was 27.4 +/- 7.4 years. One hundred eighty-two (60.7%) of the motorcyclists had the correct knowledge of the purpose of Highway Code. Only 70 (23.3%) could recognize more than half of the currently used road safety codes and 47 (15.7%) obey these road safety codes more than half of the time they see it. Only 183 (61.2%) of them had a driving license and 72 (24.1%) were able to produce these licenses on demand. All (100%) of the respondents did not use any protective helmet. Those who have longer years of working experience, higher level of education and higher knowledge of the safety codes practice it more regularly (r = 0.198, p = 0.001, chi2= 9.31, p = 0.025, and r = 0.28, p = 0.001 respectively). One hundred thirty-six (45.5%) have been involved in at least one accident in the preceding year. The overall incidence of road traffic accident was 2.16 per 1,000. There was however on statistically significant association between the practice of road safety codes and the occurrence of road traffic accidents (chi2= 0.176, p = 0.916). The study shows that the practice of road safety measures was low in this rural Nigerian community and was not associated with the incidence of road traffic accidents. Introducing road safety education particularly targeted at educating the motorcyclists on the importance and practice of road safety measures would lead to an increase in the practice of the safety measures and hopefully a reduction in the incidence of road traffic accidents.

Occupational Health Hazards among Commercial Motorcyclists in Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria.

“…shows that 55.6% of the respondents have been involved in an occupational hazard, 86.7% of which was accident while 13.3% had eye problem. This is almost in line with study conducted by Amoran et al (2005) in Igbora which shows that 45.5% of the respondents have been involved in at least one accident in the preceding years. Study conducted by Ukponmwan et al (2007) shows that the prevalence of pterygium among motorcyclists was 12.5%.…”

“…This findings is in line with study carried out by Ukponmwan, et al, (2007) in Benin City where the mean age of the respondents was 34.9 years. Also study conducted by Amoran et al, (2005) in Igbora, Oyo State shows that the mean age of the respondents is 27.4 years. Table 1.…”

Commercial motorcycle drivers' perceptions of risk and road safety in urban Nigeria: an explorative study

“…al, 2011;Nzegwu et. al 2008;Solagberu et al, 2006;Amoran, Eme, Giwa, & Gbolahan, 2006;Alti-Muazu and Aliyu, 2008;Oginni, Ugboko and Adewole, 2007).…”

Knowledge of commercial bus drivers about road safety measures in Lagos, Nigeria

“…[17,18] Several factors such as age, education and driving experience, influence drivers' knowledge of road safety measures. [11,19,20] For Americans, the older the driver, the higher the test scores for a written drivers' test examination.…”