Road Traffic Accident on the Decline in Addis

By Daniel Tirune /ABN/

Road traffic accident (RTA) is an incident on a way or street open to public traffic, resulting in one or more persons being injured or killed and involving at least one moving vehicle. Road traffic accidents have become a huge global public health and development problem killing nearly 1.2 million people a year and injuring or disabling between 20-50 million people worldwide.

RTAs are major public health problem in Ethiopia. The magnitude of trauma caused by RTA had been increased day to day. Urgent road traffic accident preventive measures and prompt treatment of the victims are warranted to reduce morbidity and mortality among the victims of the road traffic accident. Education on the proper use of sideways by pedestrians and periodic Vehicle examination should be given due emphasis by Government especially by transport minister and Federal police in collaboration.

A very recent road traffic accident report has revealed that the number of accident fatality rate has gone down by 17% in the nation’s capital, Addis Ababa. ABN speaks to inspector Assefa Mezgebu who has served his nation as a traffic police, public relation officer, road safety teacher and related works for the past many years. He was famous for his regular reporting on road traffic accidents in the capital via FM 97.1 and 98.1 radio stations, and currently Assefa is running his own radio show, featuring road safety and related issues.

Road traffic accident reporting in Ethiopia seems to have a very recent history. With the emergence of FM radio stations in the capital Addis Ababa in early 2000’s came reporting traffic accident on regular basis, encompassing number, types, magnitude, causes, places and timeof traffic accidents. Assefa is believed to be pioneer in reporting timely RTAs via different FM radio stations.

Assefa said, “As compared to other African cities, traffic accidents in Addis Ababa where 60 to 70 percent of vehicles in the country are found, is insignificant. Also as per WHO measurement the fatality or injury rate in the capital is found to be in a good state; however, more than 400 people in the city die due to car accident every year; there are still a long way to go to avoid such causalities.” Road traffic accidents not only adversely affect the livelihood of individuals but also their family members, as it can lead households into poverty via the enduring effects of the episodes: the costs of medical care, treatment and loss of family’s income generators.

“Speeding, drunk driving running red lights and stop signs, reckless driving and aggressive driving are among the major causes of road traffic accidents in urban areas,”

Road traffic accidents have also a gigantic impact on national economy by consuming the already inadequate resources, damaging invaluable property, and killing and disabling the productive age group of the community. In general, the severity of the problem is becoming horrific shockingly and reaching a catastrophic level showing that sufficient work has not been done to control and/or reduce alarming rate of the accident.

Road traffic accidents are usually caused by flaws in three major components of road safety such as the human (the behavior of man), the environment, and the vehicle

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Inspector Assefa Mezgebu

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(the means of transport). The human component includes characteristic of road users such age, sex, education level, socio-economic status, attitudes and general traffic behavior: driving behavior, driving experience, driving style, risk compensation and risk driving (use of alcohol and drugs).

The environment factor encompasses “the natural and the built environments as well as transport networks”. The means of transport component comprises of “the volume, composition, age, and quality of vehicles (technical condition and safety equipment) on the modes of transport.” Deviations among any of these elements cause road accidents. The systems approach is supported by a system of traffic laws controls, and regulations designed to ensure road users obey and follow the laws and regulations of traffic flow for sustaining road traffic safety. Public transport takes the lions share in incurring road traffic accidents in Ethiopia. This attributes to many factors that include lack of proper traffic management system to control the flow the traffic, lack of appropriate trainings for public transport drivers and irresponsible vehicle owners’ who hand over their cars to unskilled, careless and irresponsible drivers.

Most traffic accidents don’t necessarily have to do with knowing how to drive a vehicle but more so which decisions the driver makes behind the wheel. In fact, about 94% of all road accidents are caused by human error, according to Car Accident Blog Posts 2020. At some point, a number of drivers will find themselves guilty of committing some of the most common causes of traffic accidents. However, heightening awareness for these causes can further educate and hopefully influence drivers to be more cautious on the road.

Assefa said, speeding, drunk driving, running red lights and stop signs, reckless driving and aggressive driving are among the major causes of road traffic accidents in urban areas, adding that aggressive driving that encompasses any combination of traffic offenses that endanger other drivers or property, including speeding.Sleepiness, drowsiness, or downright exhaustion can impair a driver’s ability to competently respond, react, or discern conditions on the road.

Most road crash victims in urban areas are not motor vehicle occupants, but pedestrians. About 33.5 per cent of fatal crashes in the country in 2018 occurred in an urban road environment and mostly involved pedestrians. For instance, in Addis Ababa about 88 per cent of road traffic fatalities are pedestrians.

While more than two-thirds of all traffic accidents occurred among rural residents, urbanresidents have an elevated injury rate. This is likely due to the higher volume of traffic andhuman mobility in urban areas. Moreover, crash injury andfatality rates are higher in rural than in urban areas.

Assefa lauded the one-year-long Road Traffic Accident Awareness Campaign launched by the Federal Ministry of Transport, but he reiterated the need to institutionalize the national road safety measures, ensuring transparency and accountability at all levels that are responsible for establishing smooth, safe and sustainable transport system across the country.

He also stated that road traffic management system has to be technology-based, incorporating modern cameras and related information, communication and technologies.Data is essential for modern traffic management — having it, analyzing it, and sharing it.

“There are endless repercussions: families break up; high counseling costs for the bereaved relatives; no income for a family if a breadwinner is lost; and thousands of dollars to care for injured and paralyzed people.”

It works on a regional level, allowing road operators to prevent or reduce congestion, detect and respond to incidents, and share data with drivers through traveler information systems, websites and even the media. With landlocked freeways and right of way issues, we can’t build our way out of gridlock. But. We can get more out of existing roadways with more efficient, cost-effective ATMS solutions.

As far as issuance of driving license is concerned, Assefa noted that use of modern technology in training, testing and issuing license for drivers is very significant to curb challenges in producing ethically

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and professionally-built drivers and others found on the line of traffic management system, adding that private driving training centers need to be carefully monitored and controlled since they are using undesired automotive technology and unethical personnel. The road network has an effect on crash risk because it determines how road users perceive their environment. In this sense, the roadway provides instructions to the road users on what they should be doing. Negative road engineering factors include those where a road defect directly triggers a crash, where some element of the road environment misleads a road user and thereby creates human errors. According to Assefa, roads standards and quality do have significant impact on road traffic accidents; lack of timely maintenance of ruined roads and lack of feeding roads are some of the major problems being witnessed in road construction sector. Traffic lights and road signs are not clearly installed or posted in most part of Addis Ababa where traffic congestions are common during rush hours.

Government at different levels is

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responsible to ensure road safety. Given the scarcity of resource, authorities at various should give due attention to the transport sector (which is a life blood of the economic development) and effectively play its role in reducing road traffic accidents. For example, due to lack of resources or misuse of resources, in low income countries, poor road networks with no devoted area for pedestrians or non-motorized vehicles contribute to countless fatalities.

Governments at various levels can also reduce or control road traffic accidents by effectively enforcing traffic laws and regulations. Simple negligence in law enforcement can lead to horrifying accidents. For example, like most African countries Ethiopia seems to rely on unregulated taxis or buses, which frequently encourage speedy driving (‘a sluggish taxi driver makes less trips and thus less money’), use under-serviced vehicles and disobey existing traffic safety regulations and cause devastating accident.

As economy progresses, the need of government intervention and commitment to ensure road safety will increase due to the fact that developing countries high level of motorization and so facing a higher road traffic accident risk. All of these issues can be easily understood and examined via political ecology approach.

The human suffering for victims and their families of road traffic–related injuries is incalculable. There are endless repercussions: families break up; high counseling costs for the bereaved relatives; no income for a family if a breadwinner is lost; and thousands of dollars to care for injured and paralyzed people.

Authorities should be willing to focus on and consider the transport and road accident risk as a development problem (element of poverty reduction) in addition to a public health problem. This is evidently a question of economic development which requires high commitment of authorities in allocating the available recourses in optimal manner and using it efficiently so as eliminate road traffic accidents and poverty.