Abstract

This paper is concerned with traffic accidents and safety management in Nigeria. It focuses on trends in road crashes and carries out a critical review of current road safety approaches with a view to identifying their defects and deficiencies in tackling the traffic accident problem in the country. Accident records and details of current safety measures obtained from such relevant agencies as the Federal Road Safety Corps, The Nigeria Police and Department of Road Transport Services in addition to maps and photographs provided the basic data for the study. The results show the generally high rate of accidents in Nigeria with the driver as the main culprit, the functional limitations of FRSC as the lead agency for road safety matters, the practical difficulties of implementing the driver licence and vehicle registration schemes, and  poor driving culture of Nigerians arising from weak traffic education, public awareness and enforcement programmes.  Restructuring and re-tooling of the lead agency, declaration of traffic accidents as a national health problem and institution of driver identity management system among others are proposed to improve safe motoring in Nigeria.  

Key words: Road crashes, road safety, lead agency, enforcement, safety education, crash response.