Abstract

ABSTRACT
Background
According to the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, over 1.2 million people are killed annually in road accidents while over 50 million people sustain different degrees of injuries from such crashes. The cost to developing countries, already struggling with communicable diseases and other developmental concerns, may well be 1–2% of their Gross National Product (GNP)/annum. As motorization increases, road traffic crashes (RTC) are a fast-growing problem. Road traffic crashes are the second leading cause of death of people between ages 5 to 44 years in African countries, in Nigeria there are an estimated 161 deaths per 10,000 vehicles. In 1988, the World Health Organization ranked Nigeria as one of the countries with the highest fatality/frequency index rates of road crashes in the world.
Objective of the study
The study aims to assess and compare the knowledge, attitude and practice of road safety measures as well as their determinants, to identify perceived risk factors for RTC in addition to the self reported RTC rates between public sector and private commercial-taxi drivers in Nasarawa State, North-central Nigeria.
Materials and methods
A comparative cross-sectional study that utilized quantitative method of data collection (a semi-structured, interviewer administered questionnaire, a snellen’s chart and modeled traffic light, as well as a checklist for road signs) were used to obtain information on respondent’s knowledge, attitude and practice of road safety measures, in addition to their perceived risk factor for RTC, and their self reported RTC rates. Chi square tests together with binary logistic regression analysis were used to determine factors that were associated with and predictors of
14
respondents’ knowledge, attitude and practice of road safety measures as well as RTCs. Approval for the study was obtained from the Joint University of Ibadan (UI) University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan and the Nasarawa State Ethical Review Committee.
Results
A response rate of over 97.8% was obtained in the study where all the respondents were males. Public sector drivers were older with a mean age of 40.9±9.2 years than private commercial-taxi drivers 38.3±10.6. About half of public sector drivers (52.5%) and only a third (33.4%) of the private commercial-taxi drivers had attained primary education. While most (87.9%) of the private commercial-taxi drivers and about two-thirds (68.9%) of the public sector drivers learnt driving through informal training, less than a fifth (18.5%) of public sector and only 3.3% of private commercial-taxi drivers learnt driving through driving schools. Only about a fifth (22.3% public sector drivers; 18.4% private commercial-taxi driver) had attended a driving course in the past.
The study revealed respondents’ mean knowledge of road safety measures to be good, 32.77±1.97 for public sector drivers and 29.59±3.34 for the private commercial-taxi drivers (out of a 38-point score). Most (93.2%) of public sector drivers and more than half (55.4%) of the private commercial-taxi drivers had a good general knowledge of road safety measures, a high proportion (>70.0%) of respondents in both study groups had good knowledge of specific aspects of road safety measures except the knowledge of road traffic signs where a low proportion was found; public sector driver (47.6%) versus private commercial-taxi drivers (26.4%), however, public sector drivers were found to be more knowledgeable than the private commercial-taxi drivers in all aspect of knowledge assessed. General attitude of respondents
towards road safety measures was found to be good globally, though a greater proportion of private commercial-taxi (95.4%) drivers had better attitudes than public sector drivers (93.2%).
Only about a third (36.9%) of public sector drivers and 41.0% of private commercial-taxi drivers had good general practice of road safety measures. Among public sector drivers only 41.7% owned a valid drivers’ license, while in the private comparable group is even lower at 32.4%, having had a vision check and the use of corrective glasses by those that had refractive errors to drive were even worst at (51.5% versus 38.9% and 26.7% versus 4.5% for public sector and private commercial-taxi drivers respectively). However, majority (≥59%) of the respondents had good practice in all other aspects. Private commercial-taxi drivers had better general practice of road safety measures and obedience to speed limits, while public sector drivers had better practices of other road safety measures.
Respondents perceived risk factors for RTC were found to be similar in both study populations, and though, a greater proportion of public sector drivers reported near-misses (48.9% versus 33.7%), the proportion of those that were actually had road traffic crashes amongst the public sector drivers was twice as many as that of private commercial-taxi drivers (51.5% versus 21.4%).
Older respondents (≥45 years), more educated respondents (those that had tertiary education) and more experienced ones (those that had spent >20 years on the job) as well as those that attended driving school and driving course were found to be more knowledgeable, had positive attitudes, demonstrated good road safety practices and had lower road traffic crash rates.

Conclusion and recommendation
Knowledge improves attitude which in turn improves practice of road safety measures that would ultimately discourage the occurrence of RTCs. Therefore, an improvement in the educational level of drivers, the adoption of driving schools as a means of training drivers as well as the entrenchment of regular driving courses for drivers is hereby recommended for the relevant segments of the society (the drivers themselves, officials of the NURTW Nasarawa State Branch as well as the Nasarawa State government).