38% of pedestrians die yearly in Africa - Road Safety

The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi has said 38% of all African road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians. 

He disclosed this while making a presentation in Dakar, Senegal on  Non-Motorized Transportation (NMT) during the General Assembly of the West African Road Safety Organization (WARSO).

According to him, half of the world’s road traffic deaths occur among Motorcyclists (23%), Pedestrians (22%), Cyclists (5%), 31% of deaths among Car occupants and the remaining 19% among unspecified road users.

The Corps Public Education Officer, FRSC, Bisi Kazeem in a statement,quoted the Corps Marshal saying that pedestrians have a 90% chance of surviving car crashes at 30 km/h or below, but less than a 50% chance of surviving impacts at 45 km/h or above. 

He also said that Pedestrians risk about 80% chance of being killed at a collision speed of 50 kilometres/hour (km/h), as opposed to a 10% risk at speeds of 30 km/h.

According to Kazeem, the Corps Marshal also noted that at a particular point in history bicycle in Nigeria was a mobility of pride, a dream come through for the lower class and a celebrated mode even for the “well to do” in the society, but the oil windfall of 1973 brought about prosperity especially for the working class and opened up the transportation space.

The Corps Marshal highlighted that Road Traffic Crashes (RTC) was now causing the Nigerian Economy about N3Billion annually, decrease air quality owing to exhaust fumes, increases urban noise pollution that causes exhaustion among other health implications, sustains increase