About 38 per cent of all African road traffic deaths occur among pedestrians, Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, has said.
He disclosed this in a presentation during the General Assembly of the West African Road Safety Organisation (WARSO) in Dakar, Senegal, on Non-Motorised Transportation (NMT).
According to him, half of the world’s road traffic deaths occur through: motorcyclists (23%), pedestrians (22%), cyclists (5%),
while 31% occur among car occupants and the remaining 19% among unspecified road users.
He described NMT as all modes of transportation not powered by any external force such as electrical or mechanical motors, but the physical energy of the user. “It is sometimes called human-powered mobility.”
In a statement by the Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, FRSC said 84 per cent of the roads in low-income and middle-income countries where pedestrians are present carry traffic at 40 km/h and above, and have no footpaths.
He, however, noted that the existence of the footpaths would raise the concern of encroachment, truncation, abuse by motorists and lack of protective features that totally segregate pedestrians and prevent its usage by other road-users.
The FRSC boss revealed: “Pedestrians risk about 80 per cent chance of being killed at a collision speed of 50km/h, as opposed to a 10 per cent risk at speeds of 30 km/h.”
