Highlights of Road Traffic Accidents In Ethiopia

In 1995 EC (2003 GC)• Above 1,800 people died due to road accident• Above 7,000 people are crippled or injured• 53 % of deaths involve pedestrians• 31 % of of pedestrian deaths are students• The death rate is 136 per 10,000 vehicles, • Over 400 Million Birr is lost yearly as a result

Road traffic accidents occur due to defects or errors of

Road Environment Roads Weather Light condition

Road Users Drivers Pedestrians Cyclists Animals

Vehicles Motorized Non motorized

COMBINATIONS OF THESE FACTORSCAUSE ROAD ACCIDENTS

RoadEnvironment

RoadUser

Vehicle

Road user and Road

environment

Road user and Vehicle

Road users, Vehicles and Roads environment

Vehicles and Road

environment

Personnel injury road accidents related to incidences

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

Fro

nt cra

sh

Fro

nt and b

ack

cra

sh

Fro

nt and s

ide c

rash

Sid

e to s

ide c

rash

Turn

ed o

ver

Pedestr

ian s

trik

e

Anim

al s

trik

e

Fall

from

vehic

le

Collu

sio

n w

ith p

ark

ed c

ar

Collu

sio

n w

ith in

anim

ate

obje

ct

Collu

sio

n w

ith tra

in

Oth

ers

cases

Unkn

ow

n c

ase

ncidences

Accid

en

t n

um

be

rs Light

Serious

Death

Severity

Incidence

1994 to 2003 Fatalty Rate

-

50

100

150

200

250

Year

Fata

lty ra

te p

er 1

0,00

0 ve

hicl

es

Rates

Mean annual casualties by category

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

Pedestrians Passengers Drivers

Category

Casu

ality

nu

mb

er

Light

Serious

Death

Severity

Mean annual personnel injury accidents related to causes

-

500

1,000

1,500

2,000

2,500

3,000

3,500

4,000

4,500

Causes

Acc

ide

nt

nu

mb

ers

Light

Serious

Death

Severity

Distribution of vehicles as %age of total

trucks<100Q30%

Taxi+Mini11%

St.w agon6%

Automobile43%

tankers2%

trucks>100q4%

buses4%

buses

trucks>100q

tankers

Automobile

St.wagon

Taxi+Mini

trucks<100Q

buses Trucks

<100q

Trucks

>100q

tankers Automobile

St.wagon Taxi+

Minibus

Death 349 191 136 105 12 138 130

Heavy injury

374 213 130 83 35 248 252

Light injury

351 181 93 57 106 344 431

Property

damage 1,335 608 711 542 322 1,269 1,072

Accident rate Per 10,000 vehicles

Personnel injury accidents related to vehicle category

-

200

400

600

800

1,000

1,200

Vehicle category

Accid

en

ts p

er

10,0

00 v

eh

icle

s

Light injury

Heavy injury

Death

Severity

THE ACCIDENT RECORDS SHOW THAT THE MAIN ROAD SAFETY PROBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA ARE

• DRIVERS NOT RESPECTING PEDESTRIAN PRIORITY• OVER SPEEDING• UNSAFE UTILIZATION OF FREIGHT VEHICLES FOR

PASSENGER TRANSPORT• POOR SKILL AND UNDECIPLINED BEHAVIOR OF DRIVERS• PEDESTRIANS NOT TAKING PROPER PRECAUTIONS• ANIMALS AND ANIMAL-DRAWN CARTS ON ROADWAYS• OVER LOADED OR IMPROPERLY LOADED VEHICLES • WEAK TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT• LACK OF PROPER EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES• ENGINEERING EFFORTS MAY NOT CONSIDER SAFETY • POOR VEHICLE CONDITIONS

STRATEGIES AND PROGRAMS FOR ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS

Establish the National Road Safety Coordinating Council Establish regional road safety coordinating committees in each

region Establish road safety engineering units in roads authorities Implement mandatory 3rd party vehicle insurance law

Improve driver training and testing Implement defensive driving for professional drivers Strengthen targeted traffic law enforcement Implement stringent vehicle testing procedure Implement traffic safety education for children Promote road safety publicity on speed limits and pedestrian priority Improve accident data collection and processing system Develop hazardous location maps for safety measures Implement road safety audit and engineering measures Promote emergency medical service improvements Implement research on road safety publicity and accident costing

OBSERVATION 1PERSONNEL INJURY ACCIDENT

CAUSES FOR 1990 TO 1994 WERE

1. PEDESTRIAN STRIKE ---------- 68 %

2. OVERTURN ------------------------ 13 %

3. FALL FROM VEHICLE --------- 6 %

4. ANIMAL STRIKE ----------------- 3 %

5. ALL OTHERS TOGATHER -----10 %

OBSERVATION 2PERSONNEL INJURY CASUALITY

FIGURES FOR 1990 TO 1994 SHOW

1. Pedestrians -------------- 48 %

2. Passengers --------------- 46 %

3. Drivers -------------------- 07 %

OBSERVATION 4 FROM 1990 TO 1994 PERSONNEL INJURY ACCIDENTS OCCURED DUE TO

THE FOLLOWING ERRORS

1. DRIVER ERROR --------------- 81%

2. VEHICLE ERROR -------------- 5%

3. PEDESTRIAN ERROR --------- 4%

4. ROAD + OTHERS ERROR --- 10%

Road Safety Programs Implemented

Strengthening drivers’ training and testing procedure. The drivers’ training and testing procedures have been revised and strengthened to ensure improvement of the drivers’ skill. The revised procedures are now being implemented at all levels.

Defensive driving. Studies have shown that professional drivers’ cause most of the personnel injury accidents in the country. In order to improve their skills and behavior defensive driving program has been implemented in the training programs of professional drivers. Further, transport associations and organizations have been made aware of the need to establish a safety unit to cater for their safety improvement programs. Upto now some 10 such organizations have established such units in their organizational structure.

Strengthening the technical inspection of vehicles. The annual technical inspection procedure has been made more stringent and is being implemented starting this September. Further, random inspections on roadsides and at bus terminals have been implemented in 3 regions. Other regions are expected to follow up this development.

Road Safety Programs Implemented (CONTINUED)

Children road safety education. The ministry of Education has developed and issued directives with intensive road safety syllabus in both the basic education and extra curriculum activities for all the primary schools to adopt for this education year. This procedure is in line with the national road safety program in schools.

Road safety publicity. At the national level one TV program and two radio programs are broadcasted each week to develop the road safety awareness of the public. Also a weekly radio program on road safety has been started by Amhara region. A zonal once a week radio program has also been started by Wolaita zone in the Southern region. Some 5.5 million people have also been given road safety briefings in 5 regional states in the previous year alone.

Targeted traffic law enforcement. Speed has been identified in the studies made as one of the major factors in road accidents involving personnel injuries. Preliminary results of a 4 months of test period have shown significant reduction in the percentage of violators. The traffic police of Oromia region has adopted this effective speed control system and is taking penalty actions along the major route to the southern part of the country. Additional radars will be purchased to intensify such controls.

Road Safety Programs Implemented (CONTINUED)

Hazardous location identification. Studies have been made to identify the hazardous locations of Addis Ababa city and the major highways of the country. At present such a study for the Addis Ababa-Awassa road segment is near completion. Even at this state the result shows that this concept is very valuable in identifying the location with frequent accidents and designing the safety measures needed to reduce accidents.

  Pedestrian awareness. The accident data shows that 68% of personnel

injury accidents in our country involve pedestrians. Students have participated in some towns to educate pedestrians to take proper precautions to avoid road accidents. Others are following the examples of such towns. Ambo is one such town to be noted. It is also important to note that some of the regions have started to sensitize the communities along the highways to protect road signs and posts from vandalism and damage. Good examples in this relation are Dawro and South Omo zones in SNNP region, which not only sensitized the communities but also took measures to recover lost signs and in some cases brought to court the offenders.

The goal of the national road safety program is to bring the present fatality rate of 136 per 10,000 vehicles to 54 by the year 2010. The observed collaborative effort of the concerned private and government organizations at federal and regional levels and the concern of the public is a strong basis for the confidence that this target will be achieved.