Standing Committee

for Economic and Commercial Cooperation

of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC)

Improving Road Safety in the OIC Member States

COMCEC COORDINATION OFFICE

October 2016
 Standing Committee
for Economic and Commercial Cooperation
of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (COMCEC)

Improving Road Safety in the OIC Member States

COMCEC COORDINATION OFFICE

October 2016
This report has been commissioned by the COMCEC Coordination Office to Ecorys and the Dutch
Institute for Road Safety Research (SWOV). Views and opinions expressed in the report are
solely those of the author(s) and do not represent the official views of the COMCEC Coordination
Office or the Member States of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation. Excerpts from the report
can be made as long as references are provided. All intellectual and industrial property rights
for the report belong to the COMCEC Coordination Office. This report is for individual use and it
shall not be used for commercial purposes. Except for purposes of individual use, this report
shall not be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
printing, photocopying, CD recording, or by any physical or electronic reproduction system, or
translated and provided to the access of any subscriber through electronic means for
commercial purposes without the permission of the COMCEC Coordination Office.

For further information please contact:

COMCEC Coordination Office
Necatibey Caddesi No: 110/A
06100 Yücetepe
Ankara/TURKEY
Phone: 90 312 294 57 10
Fax: 90 312 294 57 77
E-mail: transport@comcec.org
Web: www.comcec.org
Table of Contents
Executive Summary ................................................................................................................................................................... 1
Section 1: FRAMEWORK FOR ROAD SAFETY.............................................................................................................. 10
1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................................................................... 10
1.1 Background 10
1.2 Objective of the Project 13
1.3 Contents of This Report 13
2 Methodological Approach ............................................................................................................................................ 14
2.1 General Approach 14
2.2 Literature Review 14
2.3 Surveys 15
2.4 Case Studies 15
2.5 Synthesis 15
3 Road Safety Management ............................................................................................................................................ 17
3.1 International Cooperation and Partnerships 17
3.2 The Safe Systems Approach 18
3.3 Road Safety Management System 20
3.4 The Road Safety Management System in Operation 22
3.5 International Standard on Road Traffic Safety Management Systems 29
3.6 The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety 34
4 Lead Road Safety Agency ............................................................................................................................................. 38
4.1 Functional Requirements Related for a Lead Agency - Results Focus 38
4.2 Functional Requirements for a Lead Agency – Institutional Management 40
4.3 Requirements Related to Interventions 48
5 Road Safety Development Phases ............................................................................................................................ 51
5.1 Typical Road Safety Development Phases 51
5.2 A Framework of Road Safety Development Phases 52
5.3 Typical Road Safety Characteristics Per Road Safety Development Phase 52
5.4 Typical Policy Measures Per Road Safety Development Phase 54
Section 2: ROAD SAFETY IN OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES ........................................................................................ 60
6 Road Safety Performance of OIC Member Countries ....................................................................................... 60
6.1 General Information on OIC Member Countries 60
6.2 Methodology for Assessing Road Safety Performance 63
6.3 Results in Terms of Road Safety Performance 64
7 Desk Research Results on Road Safety Management and Data .................................................................. 70
7.1 General Overview of Road Safety Development in OIC Member Countries 70
7.2 Specific Illustrations of Road Safety Development in OIC Member Countries 74
8 Survey Results on Road Safety Management and Data .................................................................................. 80
8.1 Approach of the Surveys 80
8.2 Survey Results 81

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Section 3: CASE STUDIES...................................................................................................................................................... 83
9 Case Study: Bangladesh ................................................................................................................................................ 83
9.1 Introduction 83
9.2 Road Safety Performance 83
9.3 Road Safety Management 87
9.4 Roads and Mobility 91
9.5 Vehicles 94
9.6 Road Users 95
9.7 Post-crash Response 96
9.8 Data Collection and Accident Reporting 96
9.9 Conclusions and Recommendations 97
10 Case Study: Cameroon .................................................................................................................................................100
10.1 Introduction 100
10.2 Road Safety Performance 100
10.3 Road Safety Management 104
10.4 Roads and Mobility 108
10.5 Vehicles 109
10.6 Road Users 111
10.7 Roads 111
10.8 Post-crash Response 112
10.9 Data Collection and Accident Reporting 113
10.10 Conclusions and Recommendations 114
11 Case Study: Morocco ....................................................................................................................................................116
11.1 Introduction 116
11.2 Road Safety Performance 116
11.3 Road Safety Management 119
11.4 Roads and Mobility 126
11.5 Vehicles 126
11.6 Road Users 132
11.7 Post-crash Response 133
11.8 Data Collection and Crash Reporting 134
11.9 Conclusions and Recommendations 135
Section 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS ..........................................................................................137
12 Conclusions and Recommendations .....................................................................................................................137
12.1 Introduction 137
12.2 A framework for Road Safety Improvement 137
12.3 Road Safety in OIC Member Countries 142
12.4 Road Safety Development Phases in OIC Member Countries 142
12.5 Recommendations towards Improving Road Safety 144
Appendix 1: References ......................................................................................................................................................149
Appendix 2: Checklist: Results Focus at Systems Level ........................................................................................154
Appendix 3: Weighting Applied to Rate OIC Countries .........................................................................................156
Appendix 4: Desk Research Results on Selected OIC Member Countries .....................................................157

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List of Tables

Table 1: Predicted road traffic fatalities in low and medium income countries ......................................... 11
Table 2: The role of the Lead Agency in managing the results focus ................................................................ 38
Table 3: Lead Agency role in coordination ................................................................................................................... 40
Table 4: Lead Agency role in legislation ........................................................................................................................ 43
Table 5: Lead Agency role in funding and resource allocation............................................................................ 44
Table 6: Lead Agency role in the promotion function ............................................................................................. 45
Table 7: Lead Agency role in monitoring and evaluation ...................................................................................... 46
Table 8: Lead Agency role in the research and development and technology transfer ........................... 47
Table 9: Interventions and supporting lead agency functions ............................................................................ 48
Table 10: Road safety development phases and typical characteristics ......................................................... 52
Table 11: Typical measures and tasks per road safety development phase ................................................. 54
Table 12: OIC Member Countries ...................................................................................................................................... 60
Table 13: Key statistics of OIC countries in the African region ........................................................................... 61
Table 14: Key statistics of OIC countries in the Arab region ................................................................................ 62
Table 15: Key statistics of OIC countries in the Asian region ............................................................................... 63
Table 16: Rating of OIC countries in the Africa region ............................................................................................ 71
Table 17: Rating of OIC countries in the Arab region .............................................................................................. 72
Table 18: Rating of OIC countries in the Asian region ............................................................................................. 73
Table 19: Response to stage 1 survey ............................................................................................................................. 80
Table 20: Response to stage 2 survey ............................................................................................................................. 80
Table 21: Registered vehicles in Bangladesh; total number by year of registration. ................................ 94
Table 22: Number of records with a yes for any of the human factor variables .......................................104
Table 23: Vehicle fleet size in 2012 ...............................................................................................................................109
Table 24: Average age of vehicle population (2014) .............................................................................................110
Table 25: Development of serious injury crashes ...................................................................................................118
Table 26: Development of serious injury crashes ...................................................................................................131
Table 27: Road safety development phases and typical characteristics .......................................................140
Table 28: OIC member countries and economic development .........................................................................143
Table 29: Policy measures for OIC member countries in the establishment phase .................................146
Table 30: Policy measures for OIC member countries in the growth phase ...............................................147

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Methodological approach ................................................................................................................................. 14

Figure 2: Safe System ............................................................................................................................................................. 19
Figure 3: A Road Safety Management System ............................................................................................................. 21
Figure 4: Road safety management system ................................................................................................................. 23
Figure 5: Implementation stages ...................................................................................................................................... 25
Figure 6: Assessing results at the system level .......................................................................................................... 26
Figure 7: Assessing results focus at the institutional management function level..................................... 27
Figure 8: Assessing results focus at the interventions level ................................................................................. 29
Figure 9: Policy development and investment into road safety improvements .......................................... 51
Figure 10: Road safety development phases ............................................................................................................... 52
Figure 11: Mortality versus pcGNI for 180 countries .............................................................................................. 65
Figure 12: Mortality versus pcGNI for OIC member countries ............................................................................ 66
Figure 13: Road deaths per 1,000 registered vehicles for Islamic countries ................................................ 68
Figure 14: Registered injuries and fatalities in Cameroon 2008-2014 .........................................................101
Figure 15: Development of registered traffic fatalities .........................................................................................102
Figure 16: Development of police reported traffic fatalities in Morocco ......................................................117
Figure 17: Development of registered injuries in Morocco ................................................................................118
Figure 18: Fatal traffic accidents, traffic fatalities and seriously injured - Morocco (2011-15).........118
Figure 19: Conclusions and recommendations ........................................................................................................137
Figure 20: Population, road traffic deaths, and registered motorized vehicles .........................................138
Figure 21: Road safety development phases .............................................................................................................139

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Abbreviations
AARSI Arrive Alive Road Safety initiative
ABS Anti-lock Braking System
ARC Accident Research Centre
ARI Accident Research Institute
ASAC Association of Insurance Companies of Cameroon
BAAC Accident Analysis Module
BCR Office of Road Traffic
BNFE Bureau of non-Formal Education
BRAC Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee
BRTA Bangladesh Road Transport Authority
BUET Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology
CISR Inter-Ministerial Committee on Road Safety
CMVSS Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
CNEH National Testing and Approval Centre
CNER National centre for studies and highway investigations
CNPAC Comité National de Prevention des Accidents de la Circulation
COMCEC Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organisation of Islamic
Cooperation
CPSR Permanent Committee of Road Safety
CRSR Regional Committee of Road Safety
DoA Decade of Action
DR Le Ministère de L’Equipement, du Transport et de la Logistique - la Direction des
Routes /Roads and Road Traffic Department (Morocco)
DRSCs District Road Safety Committees
DSI Direction de Système d’Information
DTRSR Le Ministère de L’Equipement, du Transport et de la Logistique - La Direction des
Transport Routiers et de la Securité Routière
ESC Electronic Stability Control
EUCARIS European Car and driving license Information System
FMVSS American Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
FNI Fichier National d’Immatriculation
FRSC Federal Road Safety Corps
FRSCCU Federal Road Safety Corps Command Units
HF Human Factors
HIC High Income Countries
INTPC Indonesian National Traffic Police Corps
IRSMS Accident Information System
IRTAD International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group
ISO International Organisation for Standardisation
LGED Local Government Engineering Department
LIC Low Income Countries

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METL Ministry of Equipment and Transport and Logistics
MIC Middle Income Countries
MINT Ministry of Transport
MINTP Ministry of Public Works
MOH Ministry of Health
MOHA Ministry of Home Affairs
MOI Ministry of Information
NGO Non-governmental organisation
NLTP National Land Transport Policy
NMV Non-Motorised Vehicles
NPSO National Observatory of Public Health
NRSC National Road Safety Council
NRSS Nigeria Road Safety Strategy
NSM Network Safety Management
OIC Organisation of Islamic Cooperation
OSAC Overseas Security Advisory Council
pcGNI Per capita Gross National Income
POV Point of View
PSIU Integrated Strategic Plans
PT Vehicle Standards
PTI Periodic technical inspections
RDW Vehicle Technology and Information Centre
(Dutch Vehicle and Driving Licence Registration Authority)
RHD Roads and Highways Department
RRSM Rural Road Safety Manual
RSA Road Safety Authority
RSAPs Road Safety Strategic Action Plans
RSC Road Safety Cell
RSI Road Safety Inspection
RSIA Road Safety Impact Assessment
RSMS Road Safety Management System
RSTM Road Safety Training Manual
RTHD Road Transport and Highway Division
RTM Road Traffic Management
RTS Road Traffic Safety
SARP Strategic Accident Reduction Programme
SDPSR Sub-Department of Prevention and Road Safety
SER Self-Explaining Roads
SPIs Intermediate Safety Outcome Factors
SWOV Institute for Road Safety Research
WBB Work for Better Bangladesh

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 Improving Road Safety
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Executive Summary

Rationale for focusing on road safety

Transportation is one of the six cooperation areas of COMCEC. The ambition is to help OIC
member countries to overcome transportation related problems in order to facilitate improved
movement of goods and passengers. As part of this endeavour, COMCEC has embraced the goals
of the United Nations (UN Resolution for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020). The
“Decade of Action Resolution” calls for signatories to implement far-reaching road safety
programmes aimed at ultimately halving death and serious injuries in traffic related accidents
by 2020.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 1.2 million people die on the
world’s roads annually. The majority of these deaths occur on the roads of middle and low
income countries and cost these countries approximately 3% of GDP annually. Traffic accidents
are preventable, yet they are still one of leading causes of mortality in todays’ society.

The WHO reveals that the annual number of fatalities worldwide seems to have stabilised.
However, this is primarily attributable to significant improvements in road safety management
in high income countries. Trends in middle and low income countries show a different picture
in which traffic mortality rates are disproportionately high. Low income countries have the
highest traffic mortality rate (24.1 deaths/100,000 inhabitants); almost three times that of high
income countries (9.2 deaths/100,000 inhabitants).

This is reflected in the figure below, which indicates that over 90% of road traffic deaths occur
in low and middle income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
Expected growth in car ownership and motorisation in low and middle income countries in the
coming decades will continue to put pressure on road safety in the low and middle income
countries.

Population Road traffic deaths Registered vehicles

8,5 9,2
15,6
36,7 41,9
38,7 52,1
49,6
47,8

HIC MIC LIC HIC MIC LIC HIC MIC LIC

Source: WHO, Decade of Action for road safety, 2011-2020

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Decade of Action
As mentioned above, the UN launched its Decade of Action for Road Safety in over 100 countries
in 2011. The ultimate aim of the programme was to prevent five million road traffic deaths by
2020. The activities in the Decade of Action are built on five pillars:

1. Road Safety Management;

2. Safer Roads and Mobility;
3. Safer Vehicles;
4. Safer Road Users;
5. Post-crash Response.

Three of these pillars are traditional elements of the road traffic system (roads, vehicles, users)
and are usually treated separately, often applying the 3 E’s: education, enforcement and
engineering. The UN resolution encourages countries to implement integrated road safety
strategies targeting all five pillars. These strategies should be developed taking into account
country specific requirements, resources and capabilities. The five pillars are used in this project
to streamline our analysis of and recommendations for the OIC member countries. In this
process we have added a specific element, i.e. road safety data.

Safe Systems Approach

In two of the safest countries in the world, Sweden and the Netherlands, it was realized that all
of the elements, as included in the five pillars, have to work together as a system. The Swedish
Vision Zero and Dutch Sustainable Safety were the inspiration for the internationally accepted
Safe Systems Approach. In the OECD report “Towards Zero” it is explained how this approach
puts the road user as a central element in the system: roads, vehicles, legislation, etc. have to be
tuned to the strengths and weaknesses of the road user. There is no Safe Systems blueprint;
hence it is called the Safe Systems Approach. The approach is universally applicable, however
putting Safe Systems thinking into practice requires local knowledge and consideration. Hence
the importance of this study, in which the background of the Safe Systems Approach is presented
and a benchmarking study of road safety management in the OIC member countries is conducted
as a basis for developing strategic directions and providing policy recommendations.

Road safety development phases

A clear relationship can be established between road safety initiatives and policies on the one
hand and the longer term effects on road safety on the other hand. In this relationship three road
safety development phases can be identified, i.e. establishment, growth and maturity. The curve
indicates an increasing road safety problem, with a growing number of road safety casualties,
due to rapid motorisation, and an eventual reverse of the curve as a result of road safety policy
and measures.

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Establishment Growth Maturity

Investment in road safety

Road safety casualties

Time
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

Typical road safety characteristics for the five road safety pillars, as well as road safety data, can
be linked to the road safety development phases, as presented in the table below.

Development Establishment Growth Consolidation

Phases
Road safety  No/limited political  Road safety growing  Well-developed
management will concern with political support
 Limited interaction political support.  Fair to high degree of
between  Limited funding integrated
stakeholders  Treatment coordination
 Lack of coordination, segregated  Fair to adequate
no integrated  Limited coordination funding
approach  Limited local  Supporting
 Limited funding research legislative regulatory
 Weak legal  Limited monitoring framework
framework evaluation  Intergraded action
 Limited supporting  Fair legislative programme
research framework  Targeted research
 No local research
Safer roads and  Underdeveloped  Developing road  Developed road
road network network network
mobility
 Limited sized  Varying design  Good public
network standards transport facilities
 Poor road conditions  Fair road  Integrated planning
 Lack of road maintenance and development
standards  Limited attention for  Multimodal systems
 Limited capacity in vulnerable road  Good quality
road management users facilities
 Limited attention for  Developing public
vulnerable road transportation
users facilities
Safer vehicles  Low car ownership  Growing car  Stabilised car
and low vehicle ownership ownership
mileage  High age of vehicles  Low age of vehicles
 Limited vehicle  Developing public  International vehicle
standards transportation standards applied

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Development Establishment Growth Consolidation

Phases
 High age of vehicles  Standard
 Limited roadworthy requirements for
tests new and existing
 Weak public vehicles
transportation  Good public
transportation

Safer road users  Low quality drivers  Growing number of  Good quality drivers
 Limited road safety drivers  Low infringement
awareness (speeding,  Low seatbelt rate rate
helmets, alcohol, seat  Low adherence of  Penalty point driver
belts, child traffic laws licensing
restraints)  Improving critical  High and visible
 Limited effective offence rates enforcement
road safety education  Increased  High compliance
 Ad hoc enforcement enforcement rates to critical
aimed at income  Ad hoc education offences
generation vs safety and promotional  High awareness of
campaigns road safety
 Well established
training and
educational
programs
 Strict control for
licensing

Post-crash  Limited number of  Ambulances and  Adequate number of

ambulances trauma centres in trauma centres and
response
 Limited trauma major urban areas personnel
centres  Reasonable levels of  High quality
 No protocols on road training protocols
crashes  Protocols available  Performance
monitoring and
evaluation of targets

Road safety data  Low quality crash  Poor to reasonable  Moderate to high
data quality crash data quality crash data
 No crash  Limited controls and  Exposure data
management system verification widely available
 Poor registration and  Locations generally  Location specific
reporting known  Enforcement data
 Inadequate system  Limited critical available
protocols offence and  Critical offences data
 Poor control checks enforcement data available
and balances
 Limited exposure
data
 Poor location data
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

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Road safety performance in OIC member countries

A comparison has been made of road safety performance, measured in mortality rate (number
of road traffic deaths per population size), in OIC member countries and non-OIC member
countries. Mortality rates are then linked to economic development of the OIC member
countries, measured in income per capita, resulting in the classification of high income country
(HIC), middle income country (MIC) and low income country (LIC).

The OIC member countries show diversity in road safety performance, with mortality rates
ranging from 8.3 (Bahrein) to 32.1 (Iran) per 100,000 inhabitants. Regional differences exist,
with mortality rate averages of the OIC member countries in the African group of 24.5; the Arab
group of 21.2 and the Asian group of 16.1 Mortality rates in the OIC member countries are in
general higher than expected, based on comparison with other countries of similar income
levels). As an indication, the world average mortality rate 18.8 and the global average for MICs
and LICS is 19.5 and 21.5 respectively.

As for road safety performance, the OIC member countries can be stratified into four groups:
1. HICs with much higher road mortality than average for HICs in general;
2. MICs with higher than average road mortality;
3. MICs with lower than average road mortality;
4. LICs with mortality that is high in an absolute sense.

Road safety management in OIC member countries

Literature review indicates that OIC member countries generally are in the early development
stages of the Safe Systems Approach, as advocated by the Global Plan for the Decade of Action.
A number of countries in the Arab and Asian region have taken steps to improve road safety
management to the extent that they are now comparable to many other international countries,
which have adopted and practiced the Safe Systems Approach. However, these countries have
not as yet developed an integrated approach across all pillars (including roads and mobility;
vehicles; road users and post-crash care) sufficiently to be considered as practising the
fundamentals of a Safe Systems Approach.

Countries worth mentioning as seemingly to have advanced most in the direction of a Safe
Systems Approach are the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan and to a lesser extent Oman,
Turkey and Malaysia.

Recommended starting point: know where you stand

A country faces road safety challenges based on the specific road safety development phase
which the country is in. Typical policy measures are proposed that are effective in the defined
road safety development phases. Therefore, it is important to know where a country stands in
terms of its road safety development in order to determine the appropriate course of action.

Specific tools have been designed to assist countries in conducting road safety capacity reviews
and prepare follow-up road safety projects. For example, the World Bank has developed the
Road Safety Management Capacity Reviews and Safe System Projects Guidelines. It is highly

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recommended to invest in a road safety capacity review, either using the above-mentioned
guidelines or other approaches. Although the procedures are extensive and generally time
consuming, this should not be seen as a barrier to implementing a comprehensive review, as the
benefits are substantial. The more specific the assessment is made, the better actions towards
improving road safety can be tailored.

General recommendations: no regret actions

Most OIC member countries are in the establishment and growth phase. The current investment
into road safety is considered low by most standards and decision makers and politicians must
realise that substantial investment will be required in future if the country wants to reduce the
current economic burden of road crashes on the economy.

For all OIC member countries general road safety improvement measures can be found in the
following directions.

 Applying a Safe Systems Approach by developing a road transport system that accounts for
human error and the vulnerability of the human body and considering all the road safety
aspects, as reflected in the five road safety pillars, in an integrated way.
 A cohesive approach with clear tasks and responsibilities. Knowing the multi-disciplinary
character of road safety and the large number of stakeholders involved, it is important to
develop a cohesive approach, which can be reinforced by appointing a lead agency.
 Raising awareness for road safety. This is relevant throughout society, from politicians, having
to place road safety on the political agenda, through to children, who need to be educated on
road safety.
 Knowledge transfer and capacity building, leading to a knowledge base that is shared between
the various stakeholders involved in road safety.
 Sound understanding of road safety is crucial, and is reflected in research in the following
areas:
- Analysis of crash types and crash factors, as a basis for defining effective measures.
- Further analysis related to motorisation level and travel behaviour, as a basis for
understanding the context of road safety.

Specific groups of OIC member countries may benefit from the following approach.

 HICs might be able to deal with their problems when supplied with sufficient adequate
knowledge, regarding their specific road safety situation and adequate best practices.
 The higher than average MIC group might gain from a specific approach where road and
transport infrastructure is improved, focussing on specific safety problems, notably
regarding pedestrians.
 Countries that still have to go through a motorisation growth should focus on a policy
regarding vehicles (affordable and not too fast cars rather than powered two wheelers) and
to improve infrastructure in time. Paired with that is setting vehicle and driver standards and
ensuring that the enforcement and controls of these standards are put in place.

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 LICs could benefit from focus on simple infrastructural measures, e.g. by improving
pedestrian safety.

Specific recommendations: linked to road safety development phase

Each OIC member country can position itself in one of the road safety development phases. The
identified road safety development phase helps to define relevant policy measures. It should be
mentioned that countries can be in different phases per road safety pillar. In this case it is
recommended to focus on the policy measures that are linked to the relevant development
phase.

Below, policy measures are presented for OIC member countries in the establishment and the
growth phase, as this applies to most OIC member countries. The next table identifies policy
measures per road safety pillar (as well as road safety data) for the OIC member countries that
are in the establishment phase.

Policy measures for OIC member countries in the establishment phase

Road Safety Pillar Measures
Road safety management  Garner political support for road safety
 Improvement of poor to medium quality road safety information
systems
 Development of co-ordination structures
 Assigning lead agency responsible for road safety management
 Development of coordination structures
 Development of policy review procedures
 Setting of short term targets and long term initiatives
 Develop and maintain specific delivery partnerships between
government, NGO, community and business at the central, regional
and local levels
Safer roads and mobility  Develop road network categorisation plans
 Develop appropriate functional and operational characteristics for
road types
 Setting of appropriate speed limits
 Encourages public transportation use
 Develops strategies and plans for vulnerable road users
 Secures funding for development projects
Safer vehicles  Establish vehicle registration registers
 Develop minimum standards for entry of vehicles on public roads
 Develop roadworthiness criteria and monitoring systems
 Develop enforcement strategies
 Set standards and regulations regarding the use of vehicles

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Road Safety Pillar Measures

Safer road users  Set the safety standards and rules and continuing compliance
requirements that will ensure the safety of the individual
concerned but also that of fellow road users
 Develop standards for driver licensing, testing and appraisal
 Driver offences monitoring
 Develop and implement educational programmes for school
children
 Develop strategies to improve safety of vulnerable road users
Post-crash response  Review the capabilities and capacity of trauma response units
 Establish key performance data and set targets
 Develop monitoring systems
 Implement regional pilot projects
 Develop strategies to improve capacity and resource allocation for
trauma response and management
Road safety data  Establish central computerised transport and driver licensing
registries to manage data on the number of vehicles and drivers on
the road which are easily accessible for enforcement agencies
 Establish a reliable crash reporting and recording system
 Develop programmes to obtain supplementary data for road safety
management (traffic volumes; speeds; etc.)
Source: SWOV

For the OIC member countries that are in the growth phase recommended actions are presented
in the next table.

Policy measures for OIC member countries in the growth phase

Road Safety Pillar Measures
Road safety management  Foster relationships to maintain political support for road safety
 Development of medium to high quality management information
system
 Coordination central levels
 Adopting short to medium term road safety targets
 Analysing what can be achieve in the medium term
 Develop and maintain specific delivery partnerships between
government, NGO, community and business at the central, regional
and local levels

Safer roads and mobility  Implements large scale remedial road improvement projects
 Implements strategic road network development plans
 Implements large scale improvement projects for vulnerable road
users
 Adopts an integrated approach to road infrastructure planning and
provision
 Adopts a Safe Systems Approach to road design

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Road Safety Pillar Measures

Safer vehicles  Maintain and improve vehicle registration and licensing
 Vehicle roadworthiness
 Vehicle standards
 Traffic offence monitoring of roadworthiness
 Public transportation vehicle standards
 Commercial vehicle standards

Safer road users  Review and set the safety standards and rules for continuing road user
compliance
 Driver licensing and testing
 Offences monitoring
 Targeted law enforcement and critical driver offences monitor
 Informed educational and publicity campaigns for improved road user
behaviours
 Securing legislative resources for road safety

Post-crash response  Emergency response goals and monitoring

 Fleet assessment
 Quality reviews emergency and trauma care
 Protocols and standards
 Funding for emergency and trauma care

Road safety data  Evaluate and improve crash registrations

 Develop supportive Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs)
 Establish central computerised transport and driver licensing
registries to manage data on the number of vehicles and drivers on the
road which are easily accessible for enforcement agencies
 Establish linkages between national causes of death statistics to assess
and validate traffic fatalities
 Establish or adopt tools for local highway and police authorities to
undertake data collection, analysis and monitoring techniques and
database management
 Report road safety results and progress made and make interactive
crash data systems available on the Internet
Source: SWOV

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Section 1: FRAMEWORK FOR ROAD SAFETY

1 Introduction

The aim of the study is to improve road safety management capacity in OIC member countries
in order to reduce road accidents.

1.1 Background
Focus on road safety
Transportation is one of the six cooperation areas of COMCEC. In this specific area COMCEC is
striving to assist member states in overcoming transportation-related problems in order to
facilitate improved movement of goods and passengers between the member states. As part of
this endeavour, COMCEC has embraced the goals of United Nations’ (UN) Resolution for the
Decade of Action (DoA) for Road Safety 2011-2020 (United Nations, 2011). The DoA calls for
signatories to implement far-reaching road safety programmes aimed at ultimately halving
fatalities and serious injuries in traffic-related accidents by 2020. The UN General Assembly has
since adopted two specific road safety related goals as part of its 2030 Agenda for Sustainable
Development. These aim at halving road deaths and serious injuries by 2020 (Sustainable
Development Goal 3) and by 2030, providing access to safe, affordable, accessible and
sustainable transport systems for all (Sustainable Development Goal 11). The second road safety
related goal targets improved public transport and calls for special attention to the needs of
vulnerable people, women, children, the disabled and elderly persons.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that more than 1.2 million people die on the
world’s roads annually (World Health Organisation, 2015). The majority of these deaths occur
on the roads of middle and low income countries and cost these countries approximately 3% of
GDP annually. Traffic accidents are preventable however they are still amongst the leading
causes of mortality in todays’ society.

The WHO report reveals that although the annual number of fatalities worldwide seems to have
stabilised that this is primarily attributable to significant improvements in road safety
management in high income countries. Trends in middle and low income countries do not reflect
this and given the differences in the levels of motorisation, traffic mortality rates are
disproportionately high in these countries. The WHO report reveals that high income countries
account for 18% of the world population, 46% of the registered motor vehicle population and
10% of all road traffic deaths. Low income countries account for 12% of the world population,
1% of registered vehicles and 16% of road deaths. Medium income countries make up the
balance (70% population; 53% vehicles and 74% traffic fatalities). Low income countries have
the highest traffic related mortality rate (24.1 deaths/100,000 inhabitants); almost three times
that of high income countries (9.2 deaths/ 100,000 inhabitants). As mentioned earlier, the
number of traffic related deaths in high income countries has been declining over the period
2010-2013, whereas in low and middle income countries it has been increasing.

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Projections of the predicted development of traffic fatalities in the various world regions
showed that over the period 2000 to 2020, a global increase of 66% was anticipated (Kopits &
Cropper, 2003), with all the regions showing increases, although high income countries, as a
separate group, were anticipated to show significant decline in the number of traffic fatalities,
as indicated in Table 11.

Table 1: Predicted road traffic fatalities in low and medium income countries
Middle and Low No. of Estimated Number of Percentage Fatality Rates
Income Countries Countries Fatalities (x 1000) by Change (death/100,000
by World Bank year 2000-20 population)
Region 2000 2020 % 2000 2020

South Asia 7 135 330 143.9 10.2 18.9

East Asia and

15 188 337 79.8 10.9 16.8
Pacific
Middle East and
13 56 94 67.5 19.2 22.3
North Africa
Latin America and
31 122 180 48.1 26.1 31.0
Caribbean
Europe and Central
9 32 38 18.2 19.0 21.2
Asia
All Middle and Low
121 613 1,124 83.3 13.3 19.0
income countries
All High income
35 110 80 -27.8 11.8 7.8
countries

Global Average 156 723 1,204 66.4 13.0 17.4

Source: Kopits & Cropper, Table 8

The Decade of Action

Given the impact of traffic related deaths in especially low and middle income countries, the
United Nations launched its Decade of Action for Road Safety in over 100 countries in 2011. The
ultimate aim of the programme was to prevent five million road traffic deaths by 2020.

The activities in the Decade of Action are built on five pillars:

1. Road Safety Management;
2. Safer Roads and Mobility;
3. Safer Vehicles;
4. Safer Road Users;
5. Post-crash Response.

1 Figures are adjusted for under reporting.

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Three of these pillars are traditional elements of the road traffic system (roads, vehicles, users)
and are usually treated separately, often applying the 3 E’s: education, enforcement and
engineering. However, in two of the safest countries in the world, Sweden and the Netherlands,
it was realised that all of these elements (have to) work together as a system. The Swedish Vision
Zero (Tingvall & Haworth, 1999) and Dutch Sustainable Safety (Koomstra et al., 1992; Wegman
& Aarts, 2006) were the inspiration for the internationally accepted Safe Systems Approach.

In the OECD report “Towards Zero” (OECD, 2008) it is explained how this approach places the
road user as a central element in the system: roads, vehicles, legislation, etc. have to be tuned to
the strengths and weaknesses of the road user. Some of the human limitations are biophysical,
which implies that vulnerable road users such as pedestrians and cyclists should be separated
from motorised traffic. This idea brings about concepts such as the categorisation of the road
network, safe (i.e. low and credible) speeds where motorised and non-motorised road users
meet, airbags, ESC etc. Other limitations are of a more cognitive or psychological nature:
everybody makes mistakes; (too) many take risks occasionally or frequently. Preferably the
road design and safety culture will help prevent crashes (i.e. via self-explaining roads,
designated drivers, etc.) but in the end enforcement will be an inevitable road safety measure
that has to be integrated in the system.

Safe Systems Approach

It is evident from the above that there is no Safe Systems blueprint, hence it is called the Safe
Systems Approach. The underlying theory (i.e. the approach) is universally applicable but
putting Safe Systems thinking into practice requires local knowledge and consideration. In the
so-called SUNflower evaluation (Koomstra et al., 2002), countries with a comparable road safety
record were compared and benchmarked. This study compared Sweden, the UK and the
Netherlands (hence SUN). These countries were considered similar since all three were among
the safest traffic countries in the world, part of Europe and belonged to the high income group
of countries. However, the study revealed that not only were the problems different but also the
solutions. For example, the Netherlands is densely populated and has many cyclists, unlike
Sweden and the UK. What they did have in common was the evidence-based approach. A general
conclusion is that countries can learn from one another’s experiences but these cannot always
be copied and reproduced. Following the initial SUNflower study, an expanded benchmarking
study was conducted (Morsink et al., 2005). Also IRTAD is benchmarking ten Latin American
countries using the SUNflower-approach. All these studies compare the performances of
different countries and in this regard, attempt to identify stronger and weaker areas in road
safety management.

The UN Declaration encourages countries to implement integrated road safety strategies

targeting all five pillars. These strategies should be developed taking into account country
specific requirements, resources and capabilities.

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Since COMCEC has identified road safety as an important part of its cooperation agenda, it
wishes to conduct a benchmarking study of road safety management in its member countries in
order develop some strategic direction and provide future policy recommendations.

1.2 Objective of the Project

The main objective of this project is to assist OIC member countries with the reduction of road
accidents. To this end, the study focuses on international best practices and the development of
a framework for road safety that can be applied in OIC member countries. At the same time, it
reviews road safety in OIC member countries, through desk research, questionnaire and
surveys, as well as a number of country-specific case studies. The combination of this research
has led to conclusions and recommendations on how to improve road safety in OIC member
countries.

The results of the project will contribute to the process of raising awareness of road safety
among the OIC member countries, as well as to trigger a debate on specifically how to improve
road safety, based on the findings of the study.

1.3 Contents of This Report

Four sections can be distinguished in this report:

1. Road safety: status, trends and conceptual framework

Besides this introduction (Chapter 1), Section 1 also addresses the methodological approach
(Chapter 2); international trends and best practices in Road Safety Management (Chapter 3);
the importance of a Road Safety Lead Agency (Chapter 4); and Road Safety Development
phases (Chapter 5).

2. Road safety in OIC member countries

This section deals with road safety performance in OIC member countries (Chapter 6);and
the five road safety pillars in OIC member countries, based on desk research (Chapter 7) and
the survey (Chapter 8).

3. Case studies
This section describes the results of three cases studies, i.e. Bangladesh (Chapter 9),
Cameroon (Chapter 10) and Morocco (Chapter 11).

4. Conclusions and recommendations

The section concludes the report by presenting conclusions and recommendations (Chapter
12).

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2 Methodological Approach

2.1 General Approach

The methodological approach for the study is built on two distinct phases, i.e. the data collection
and the synthesis phase, as presented in Figure 1. The data collection phase consists of literature
review, surveys and field visits and the synthesis phase consists of drafting conclusions and
recommendations and the presentation of results.

Figure 1: Methodological approach

Data collection phase Synthesis phase

T1: Literature Review T4: Conclusions and recommendations
 Analysis of results from data
 Inventory of relevant collection
documentation  Define conclusions and
 Review of relevant recommendations for the five
documentation main road safety categories
 Produce Final Report
T2: Surveys T5: Presentation of results
 Development of online survey,  PowerPoint presentation
including questionnaire highlighting the project’s
 Implementation of online conclusions and
survey and optimizing response recommendations
 Analysis of responses  Presentation during the 8th
meeting at COMCEC

T3: Field visits

 Development of interview
scripts for case studies
 Field visits to Bangladesh,
Cameroon and Morocco

Source: Ecorys

2.2 Literature Review

The literature review provides the ingredients for developing a framework for road safety,
based on international best practices, and a review of road safety performance of OIC member
countries compared to other countries. The review makes use of published reports and
documentation. Literature review entails a number of tasks, namely:

 A summary of international best practice regarding road safety management.

 Comparing road safety performance data of OIC member countries with the rest of the world
using reported fatality data, mortality rates and other data revealing the outcomes of road
safety efforts in those countries.
 An overview of the status of road safety in OIC member countries using the five road safety
pillars, as encouraged by the United Nations as a reference framework.

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For the first task a focussed literature review was carried out. The review concentrated on
known state of the art publications on road safety management, specifically those with a focus
on road safety capacity reviews. In addition, a number of websites providing relevant
information on factsheets, reviews and checklists were consulted to supplement the literature.
This is presented in Chapters 3 and 4 of the report.

For the state of road safety in OIC member countries, the following sources were primarily used:
 Statistics published by the World Health Organisation. This provides an overview of road
safety in most countries (World Health Organisation, 2015) but also gives access to the
underlying data for each of the countries. The database covers 53 of the 57 OIC member
countries and allows for various analyses to be performed with which to compare OIC
countries with one another and with other non-OIC countries.
 Data published by the International Road Federation, specifically their report World Road
Statistics 2015, covering the period 2008-2013, have been accessed. Section 6 of the IRF
report deals with road accidents and various relevant statistics.
 The International Traffic Safety Data and Analysis Group (IRTAD) of OECD covers a limited
selection of OIC members: Nigeria, Malaysia and Morocco.

The above sources were complemented by a web search of reports and documents providing
relevant road safety information in each of the 57 OIC member countries. The search was aimed
at sourcing country specific reports describing the status quo of road safety in terms of the five
pillars of the Decade of Action (road safety management; safer roads and mobility; safer
vehicles; safer road users and post-crash response) in each of the OIC member countries. Results
are presented in Chapters 6 and 7.

2.3 Surveys
Two surveys have been carried out; a first initial survey and a second more extensive survey. As
such, a two-stage approach has been applied whereby an initial screening survey was sent to all
OIC member countries, targeting the COMCEC focal points of the OIC member countries. The
feedback from the screening survey facilitated the identification and selection of a core group of
OIC member countries for the detailed survey which has a more topical focus, concentrating on
policy aspects and following the five road safety pillars. The results are presented in Chapter 8.

2.4 Case Studies

Three case studies have been carried out in Bangladesh, Cameroon and Morocco. Using the five
road safety pillars as a guide in the review process, the case studies provide deeper insight in
the road safety situation in these three OIC member countries. The results of the case studies
are presented in Chapters 9-11.

2.5 Synthesis
The data collection phase has provided a strong base for defining conclusions and
recommendations. Three typical road safety development phases have been defined, with

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typical characteristics per phase, categorised per the defined road safety pillars (see Chapter 5).
The phased road safety development approach facilitates defining targeted road safety policy
measures for (groups of) OIC member countries in addition to general recommendations that
apply to all OIC member countries. Conclusions and recommendations are presented in Chapter
12.

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3 Road Safety Management

In 2009, the World Health Organization and the World Bank published the report ‘Global Status
Report on Road Safety – Time for Action’, highlighting the growing public health burden of road
fatalities in the developing world (World Health Organisation, 2009). The report made a
powerful case for urgent measures to address the problem as a global development priority.
This report was the first in a series of annual reports on road safety published by WHO. These
reports show that low- and middle-income countries have higher road traffic mortality rates
than high-income countries. Over 90% of the world’s fatalities on the roads occur in low-income
and middle-income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
Furthermore, half of those that die in road crashes are pedestrians, cyclists or motorised two-
wheelers, collectively known as vulnerable road users – and this proportion is higher in the
poorer economies of the world.

The WHO and World Bank findings and recommendations contained in the above-mentioned
reports provided a consensus-based blueprint for country, regional and global action and were
subsequently endorsed by the United Nations General Assembly Resolutions 56/289, 60/5 and
62/244 (Improving Global Road Safety) and World Health Assembly Resolution WHA 57.10
(Road Safety and Health).

The more recent outcome or implementation plan for the above process was known as the
Decade of Action for Road Safety, 2011 – 2020 (United Nations, 2011) with five specific road
safety pillars addressing road safety management, safer vehicles, safer road users, safer roads
and emergency response.

3.1 International Cooperation and Partnerships

Efficient and effective implementation of the WHO and WB recommendations require countries
to work in partnership with the international development community to scale up, refocus and
harmonise their road safety activities, with an emphasis on managing for results. As an
overarching priority, institutional capacity building at global, regional and country levels must
underpin this endeavour if improved country road safety performance is to be sustained in the
longer term.

The guidelines first set out in the recommendations of the First Global Status report (World
Health Organisation, 2009) and later in the UN’s Decade of Action, provide a sequential process
that is vital to success. Safety management capacity reviews, based on the procedures developed
for the World Bank (Bliss & Breen, 2009) and later to be incorporated in the International
Standard for road traffic safety management (ISO, 2012), are deemed and essential first steps in
building a multi-sectoral framework for dialogue between all relevant partners and
stakeholders at country, regional and global levels. Capacity review findings will specify the
position and role of organisations responsible for road safety management (the lead agency),
strengthen the long-term investment strategy and identify (Safe System) projects required to
improve country safety outcomes on a sustainable basis.

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The procedures developed for conducting capacity reviews incorporate a model that is today
considered state of the art (Bliss & Breen, 2009; Howard et al., 2010; ISO, 2012; Schermers,
Labuschagne & Botha, 2013). The World Bank procedures have been specifically developed so
that these apply to all countries, irrespective of the state of road safety development. It is one of
the first integrated approaches to assessing the state of road safety in a country. It is also the
first approach that has been adopted as the framework for an international standard on road
safety management.

3.2 The Safe Systems Approach

The Safe System approach was conceptualised with the introduction of the Dutch Sustainable
Safety approach (Koornstra et al., 1992; Schermers, 1999; Wegman & Aarts, 2006) and the
Swedish Vision Zero (Tingvall & Haworth, 1999). This thinking laid the foundation for the
recommendations developed by WHO (World Health Organisation, 2009) and United Nations
(United Nations, 2011) and was incorporated into the OECD report “Towards Zero” (OECD,
2008) and the World Bank Country Guidelines for the Conduct of Road Safety Management
Capacity Reviews (Bliss & Breen, 2009). The World Bank guidelines were developed specifically
to promote the Safe Systems Approach and to introduce road safety capacity reviews as a first
step to redress the growing road safety problems.

The underlying principle of the Safe Systems Approach is that the entire transport system is
designed around the limitations of the road users (Koornstra et al., 1992; OECD, 2008; Tingvall
& Haworth, 1999; Wegman & Aarts, 2006). It must be designed to accommodate and
compensate for human error. In other words, a safe system accepts human failures and mitigates
for these accordingly. A Safe System has the following characteristics (adapted from OECD,
2008):

 Road users that make mistakes, irrespective of efforts designed to prevent incidents.
 Designers and operators of the road transport system that accept and embrace a shared
responsibility for the safety of the system.
 Users of the road transport system that accept the responsibility to use the system as it is
intended to be used, adhering to rules and regulations.
 Safety management decisions that are aligned with other transport and related policy goals
and decisions (i.e. road safety management does not occur in a vacuum and takes into
account the broader transport related economic, human and environmental goals).
 Road safety interventions that aim at meeting long term goals.

The Safe System approach aims to minimise crashes and where these cannot be avoided, to
ensure that the level of injuries are minimised to the extent that fatal and serious injuries are
prevented, as illustrated in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Safe System

Source: Austroads, 2013

Safety interventions should target the highest concentrations of death and injuries on the road
network to achieve rapid and demonstrable improvements. Obviously the approach is driven by
measures of effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses and strives to demonstrate the highest gains
in terms of crash reduction at the lowest possible cost. The absence of reliable death and injury
data must not impede taking urgent action, but the building of countrywide data systems should
be an immediate focus.

Dialogue must also be initiated and sustained with international partners and stakeholders to
foster global and regional partnerships that can scale up and accelerate the process of building
the scientific, technological and managerial capacities required to prepare and implement
innovative and cost-effective road safety programs at the country level.

The Austroads Guide to Road Safety (Austroads, 2013) which was developed in Australia,
promotes a Safe System approach to road safety and has been produced for use in any country
irrespective of its development status or road safety performance. They draw on the World

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Report findings and provide a management framework to guide the implementation of its
recommendations. Further updates are planned, based on the experience gained with their
application in low, middle and high-income countries.

Road safety management systems have evolved in high-income countries over the last fifty years
and the challenge for low and middle-income countries will be to benefit from the lessons
learned, to avoid the unnecessary and unacceptably high level of fatalities and injuries
experienced in high-income countries. This system requires low and middle-income countries
to shift rapidly and directly to a Safe System with a results focus which aims to eliminate road
deaths and serious injuries, rather than chart a fatalistic pathway that accepts these impacts as
an inevitable price of economic progress.

The Safe System approach is also well attuned to the global, regional and country development
goals of sustainability, harmonisation and inclusiveness. The Safe System approach is dedicated
to the elimination of deaths and injuries that undermine the sustainability of road transport
networks and the communities they serve. It focuses on safer and reduced speeds, and also
harmonizes with other efforts to reduce local air pollution, greenhouse gases and energy
consumption. Its priority to afford protection to all road users is inclusive of the most vulnerable
at-risk groups such as pedestrians, young and old, cyclists and motorcyclists. These co-benefits
of shifting to a Safe System further strengthen the business case for its implementation.

The long term goal for the Safe Systems Approach is the elimination of fatal and serious injury
crashes. It is a long term goal requiring a comprehensive and integrated set of coordinated
interventions that cannot be achieved in the short to medium term. Such a long term goal is best
supported by traditional interventions which target specific road safety problems, often on the
short to medium term. The Dutch Sustainable Safety programme was the result of an integrated
and coordinated approach combining both short term interventions aimed at immediate
problems and longer term interventions requiring a fundamental change in which road
infrastructure was provided and operated (Schermers & Vliet, 2001; Wegman & Aarts, 2006;
Weijermars & van Schagen, 2009).

3.3 Road Safety Management System

Effective road safety programmes rely on effective road safety management. The effectiveness
of road safety management is dependent on the institutional capacity available for developing
and implementing effective strategies and interventions. An effective road safety management
system is focussed on achieving results and there must be a clear focus on achieving stated
targets. In this road safety management model (based on that developed by the Land Transport
Safety Authority in New Zealand) there are three layers; results at the highest level which
depends on interventions on the middle level which in turn depends on the institutional
management functions at the lowest level. This pyramid model distinguishes itself from most
other traditional road safety management approaches in that it does not only focus on
interventions. It provides a holistic framework which assigns responsibility for road safety

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policy implementation, provides for the delivery of interventions and ensures accountability for
the results.

Figure 3: A Road Safety Management System

Source: Koornstra et al., 2002; LTSA, 2000; OECD, 2008

The model identifies seven institutional management functions which are deemed essential for
a country to achieve the desired results (OECD, 2008). Results focus provides the strategic focus,
linking the implementation of interventions to the intermediate and final outcomes. Results
focus requires government to take ownership of the road safety problem and to appoint a
responsible organisation/department/body to work with other authorities and organisations
to:
 Develop management capacity to understand a country’s road safety issues.
 Provide a comprehensive strategy with intermediate and outcome targets.
 Deliver interventions and target achievements.
 Review performance.
 Coordination of the key agencies to develop and deliver road safety policy and strategy.
 Effective legislation to enable desired results to be delivered.
 Adequate funding and well-targeted resource allocation for interventions and related
institutional management functions.
 Promotion of road safety within the government and the broader community.
 Robust and systematic monitoring and evaluation to measure progress.
 Proactive research and development and knowledge transfer programmes which
actively influence improvement in interventions, institutional management functions
and performance monitoring.

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To effectively manage road safety requires commitment to a results focused approach. This
commitment plays a critical role in the success or failure in meeting a country’s road safety
ambition and related targets. Without a clear national political will to commit to road safety
improvement, the chances of successfully implementing an effective road safety management
system are slim.

3.4 The Road Safety Management System in Operation

The World Report on Road Traffic Injury Prevention issued by the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the World Bank in 2004, called for a drastic improvement of global road safety. It
recommended a range of urgent measures essential for a sustainable reduction of the social and
economic impacts of road accidents.

These recommendations have since been mandated by the UN General Assembly with the
release of the Decade of Action for Road Safety. The World Bank has since commissioned the
development of Guidelines for conducting road safety capacity reviews (Bliss & Breen, 2009) to
assist countries to implement these recommendations.

These guidelines incorporate a Road Safety Management System (RSMS) that was derived from
the pyramid model developed in New Zealand (LTSA, 2000) and applied in the SUNflower
projects (Koornstra et al., 2002; Morsink et al., 2005). Although there are other reports that
describe the Safe Systems Approach, for example the OECD Towards Zero - Ambitious Road
Safety Targets and the Safe System Approach (OECD, 2008); the methodology described in the
SUNflower project (Koornstra, et. al 2002) and the Sustainable Safety approach (Wegman and
Aarts, 2005), the Road Safety Management System (RSMS, see Figure 4), developed for the
World Bank (Bliss and Breen, 2009) has many generic components that allow for it to be applied
to all countries and irrespective of the status of development or road safety performance in that
country. The guidelines introduce a systematic review process that is supported by checklists
and questionnaires. Although the guideline is intended for general use, the review process
described assumes the input of road safety experts and not merely a mechanistic process of
following a checklist or completing a questionnaire and trusting the outcomes. The reviewers
must have a thorough understanding of road safety and be able to probe and investigate issues
underlying reported problems. That requires experience, knowledge and understanding of all
aspects related to road safety and road safety management.

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Figure 4: Road safety management system

Source: Breen and Bliss, Building on the frameworks of Land Transport Authority, 2000; Wegman, 2001, Koornstra
et al. 2002; Bliss, 2004

These generic characteristics of the World Bank RSMS are as follows (adapted from Bliss and
Breen, 2009):

 The RSMS deals with road safety as a production process in the same approach one would
deal with the production of any other goods or services. This production process is depicted
as a management system comprising three levels, namely institutional management
functions which produce interventions that in turn produce results.
 The RSMS is a generic model that is neutral to country structures and cultures which shape
the way institutions function and goals are set and achieved.
 The management system can be used to review road safety management capacity and
prepare related strategies and programs, irrespective of the stage of road safety development
in the specific country.
 The RSMS can be applied to any land use/transportation system. The current and projected
exposure to risk arising from that system is taken as a given. However, land use/transport
trade-offs can be managed by considering these as options in the desired focus on results.
These can then be addressed by interventions related to the planning, design, operation and
use of the road network and the entry and exit of vehicles and road users to this network.

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 The model takes the road network as its frame of reference. The interventions are directly
associated with the road network and have strong spatial dimensions. The difference
between this approach and models based on safer roads, safer vehicles and safer people is
that these are placed specifically in the network context where injury related crashes occur.
The model focuses on safety interventions to prevent network failures and near failures as is
the case with, for example, air transport.

The World Bank and WHO report (Bliss & Breen, 2009) provides implementation guidelines for
road safety management capacity review projects. As mentioned earlier, an important
consideration in applying the model is that a fundamental understanding of the current road
safety situation and climate in the particular country is needed.

Figure 5 shows the implementation stages recommended by the guidelines. Ideally each
member country in the OIC should follow these implementation guidelines in assessing and/or
establishing road safety management systems. As mentioned, the review process uses a series
of checklists (see Appendix 2) as a basis for collecting the required data. The checklists have
been generalised and designed to cover all the aspects described by the road safety management
model. There are 11 checklists covering aspects relating to the results, interventions and
institutional management functions. A twelfth checklist has been designed to assess the
performance and role of a lead agency.

The current project is aimed at assessing the state of road safety management in member
countries of the OIC. Due to a limited budget, full scale capacity reviews as described by the
World Bank guideline (as depicted by Figure 5) are not possible and the review will for the
largest part be based on a review of current practice as described in available (English)
documentation supplemented by questionnaires and interviews in a select number of countries.
However, the process described by the World Bank guideline provides the evaluation
framework for the study although the evaluation in this study will be at much lower level of
detail. The purpose is an illustrative comparison of the state of road safety management at a
fairly global level across OIC member countries, across OIC regions and with non-OIC member
countries that are considered to practice state of the art Road Safety Management. For this
reason an overview of the World Bank approach is provided as the backdrop against which this
review is provided.

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Figure 5: Implementation stages

Source Bliss and Breen, 2009

3.4.1 Appraising results at the system level

The first step in the review process is to assess current road use and operation of the road
network. Checklist 1 of the World Bank guidelines (Bliss & Breen, 2009), which is presented in
Appendix 2, covers questions that aim to inform discussions regarding the current performance
of the road (safety) system. It aims at identifying results at a systems level.

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Figure 6: Assessing results at the system level

Source Bliss and Breen, 2009

Checklist 1 provides the framework with which the reviewer can decide to investigate specific
matters in more detail. It is essentially an initial probe to determine sources of data and where
these are not available, local experts must be consulted to identify high risk user groups,
dangerous road sections, critical offences etc.

3.4.2 Assessing results focus at the institutional management level

A primary objective of the World Bank review process is aimed at assessing the legal,
institutional and organisational setting of road safety management. Following from the initial
system level appraisal, the institutional management functions are appraised using Checklists 6
to 11, as included in the World Bank guidelines (Bliss & Breen, 2009). The checklists provide a
basis for developing questions and exploring issues that enable assessing the current
institutional management functions and linking these to the desired interventions and their
focus.

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Figure 7: Assessing results focus at the institutional management function level

Source Bliss and Breen, 2009

In this assessment the questions serve to guide an in-depth review of the current status relating
to the primary institutional management functions a lead road safety agency should perform.
The questions serve to measure the various dimensions of these functions. As a collective they
give an indication of a country’s capability and capacity with respect to road safety management.
These institutional functions are results orientated and driven by measurable targets and goals.

In an ideal situation the strategic orientation is such that all actual and potential interventions
are linked to results, analyses reveal targets, and set out a performance driven management
framework for the implementing interventions and attaining their intermediate and final
outcomes. This strategic orientation is not merely a visionary statement or goal, but a
measurable expression of where the country wants to be, how it plans to get there and how it
plans to measure getting there. It is performance driven and goals and targets are monitored to
assess the actual performance. The overarching results focus incorporates six institutional
management functions, namely:

1. Coordination
This relates to how the country organises and manages its interventions and efforts aimed at
redressing road safety problems across national, regional and local government and civic
society, private sector and other organisations.

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2. Legislation
This defines the legal framework from within which the organisations and institutions
responsible for road safety must function. It defines the responsibility, accountability,
intervention and associated institutional management functions needed to achieve the
desired result.
3. Funding and resource allocation
This relates to financing the operational budget/s of the organisation/s responsible for road
safety management and the associated interventions needed to achieve the intended results
in a sustainable manner. It also pertains to the efficient allocation of resources based on a
rational evaluation framework (i.e. based on quantitative assessment of cost and benefit in
relation to stated objectives).
4. Promotion
This relates to the process of communicating with the public on road safety matters and
should be a core business of government and society to emphasise the shared social
responsibility to develop, implement and support road safety improvement initiatives and
interventions that aim at meeting stated targets.
5. Monitoring and evaluation
Monitoring and evaluation deals with the on-going and systematic measurement of road
safety performance measures and indicators in order to assess and evaluate the efficacy of
introduced measures and interventions.
6. Research and development and technology transfer
This is an integral and essential component of any road safety management system. It relates
to the timely identification of changes in the system, the development of new techniques and
methods, the application of new knowledge and the transfer and application of knowledge to
continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system in order to keep meeting
the desired results.

3.4.3 Assessing results at the interventions level

Informed by the systems and institutional management level appraisals, Checklists 2 to 5 of the
World Bank guidelines (Bliss & Breen, 2009) are used to assess the results at the intervention
level (see Figure 8). The review focusses on the three broad intervention areas (planning,
operation, design and use; vehicles and drivers; and recovery and rehabilitation of crash
victims). The purpose of these questions is to probe for relationships between the intervention
and their outputs, preferably in the form of quantifiable relationships backed by documented
studies or research and focusing on safe road design, operation and maintenance; safe roads and
roadsides; safe speeds and safe vehicles; emergency response and emergency (trauma) centre
protocols and practices.

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Figure 8: Assessing results focus at the interventions level

Source Bliss and Breen, 2009

Current international best practice in the field of road traffic safety is dictated by the concept of
the Safe System approach as outlined earlier. Specifically with respect road traffic safety
management as outlined by the Pillar A of the UN Decade of Action (UN, 2010) there are specific
requirements outlined by both the Country Guidelines and the international standard ISO 39001
on Road Traffic Management (RTM) Systems (ISO, 2012).

3.5 International Standard on Road Traffic Safety Management Systems

The ISO 39001 International Standard, ‘Road Traffic Safety (RTS) Management Systems -
Requirements with guidance for use’, specifies requirements for a management system for
specifically road traffic safety. It provides a framework for the responsible organisation to
develop and implement appropriate road traffic safety policy, objectives and action plans and
taking into account legal and other requirements. The sole purpose of the standard is to address
road traffic safety management within organisations that wish to:

 Improve road traffic safety in their organisation;

 Establish, implement, maintain and improve a road traffic safety management system;
 Assure itself of conformity with stated RTS policies; and
 Demonstrate conformity with this international standard.

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It is, however, important to note that the standard does not serve to try to standardise RTS or
suggest uniformity in the structure of RTS management systems or documentation. It addresses
purely RTS management.

Although also applicable to road authorities and leading agencies, the standard has a larger
target audience. It is formulated very much with a view to getting companies (private and
public) to adopt the standard as a working procedure. This is aimed at specifically creating road
safety awareness within the workplace and making that a specific responsibility within these
organisations. However, the standard can be broadly applied and the principles and
requirements outlined apply equally to a lead agency responsible for road safety.

3.5.1 Context of the organisation

The ISO standard stipulates that organisations responsible for road safety management must
define their roles in the road traffic systems, identify processes, procedures and functions of the
organisation that will impact on RTS and finally determine the sequence and interaction of these.

The organisation is also expected to understand the market it serves, specifically the needs and
stakeholders and other parties involved in road traffic safety. To do this the agency must identify
who these parties and stakeholders are, determine their requirements and determine the legal
and other requirements related to RTS to which the organisation subscribes.

The ISO 39001 standard requires that the lead agency establishes and maintains a RTS
management system. This system is intended to be a dynamic system which is continually
adapted and amended to meet changing demands of the road safety environment.

A prime function of a lead agency is to establish its outcomes, i.e. the RTS management system
must strive to reach tangible targets, ultimately based on an approach towards zero deaths and
serious injuries. The agency or organisation must therefore determine the scope of its
management systems, particularly related to its role in road traffic safety and the requirements
of its partners and stakeholders.

3.5.2 Leadership
The ISO 39001 standard stipulates that top management of an organisation shall ensure that
RTS policies and objectives are established in accordance with the strategic direction of the
organisation. The RTS management system must be integrated into organisational business
processes and be supported by whatever resources that may be required to drive it. Top
management shall display leadership by adopting a towards zero road safety reduction goal and
by setting out clear short term targets and plans. The organisation will work closely with its
partners and top management will ensure that it establishes sustainable coordination structures
to attain the RTS goals and objectives. Top management has the responsibility of assigning
responsibilities and authorities for relevant roles and functions within the organisation.

The organisation will develop its strategic actions and implementation plans based on sound
management information and prioritise these in order to achieve the intended outcomes. The

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implementation will be monitored and focussed on achieving results (results driven). The
processes in doing this will be transparent and open and communication internally and
externally of these is an important function of top management. Equally important is that top
management ensures that the importance of compliance with laws relevant to achieve the
intended outcomes of the RTS management system is communicated and understood by its
entire staff.

The leadership of the organisation shall provide the necessary resources to establish,
implement, maintain and continually improve the RTS management system. The leadership
must furthermore stimulate its staff to strive for the RTS goals and set personnel targets and
benchmarks as part of performance appraisal (individuals will be stimulated to be results driven
and evaluated accordingly).

Top management will establish RTS policy which is appropriate to the organisation; provides
the framework for setting objectives and targets; shows commitment to satisfy applicable
requirements and continual improvement of the system. The policy shall be documented and
publicly available and shall be communicated to the entire organisation.

3.5.3 Planning
The ISO 39001 standard stipulates that the lead agency/organisation shall review RTS
performance, determine risks and opportunities, select RTS performance factors to work on,
analyse what is achievable over time and sets appropriate RTS objectives, targets and
implementation plans to achieve these. The performance shall be quantified and future impacts
assessed.

The organisation shall plan actions to address risks and opportunities and integrate these into
the RTS management processes and it shall also evaluate the effectiveness of such actions.

The standard provides a list of RTS performance factors (risk exposure; final safety outcomes
and intermediate safety outcomes) which organisations have to select a number (or all) of
depending on the context of the organisation and the risks and opportunities it has identified.
These factors are listed below.

Risk exposure factors

 Mobility data (distance travelled and traffic volumes by mode and road user type);
 Volume of product or service provided by the organisation.

Final outcome factors

 The number of deaths and serious injury crashes and victims.

Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs, referred to as Intermediate Safety Outcome Factors in

ISO 39001). These relate to the safe planning, design and use of the road network and all aspect
associated with that and include:

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 Road design and safe speeds, with special attention for separation (in time or space) of travel
direction and road users, roadside safety and intersection design;
 Use of appropriate roads, depending on vehicle type, user, type of cargo and equipment;
 Use of personal safety equipment, especially seat belts, child restraints, bicycle and
motorcycle helmets, visibility and means for road users to be seen;
 Safe driving speeds, and taking into account vehicle type, traffic and weather conditions;
 Fitness of drivers, especially fatigue, distraction, alcohol and drugs;
 Safe journey planning, including trip motives, the amount and mode of travel, choice of route,
vehicle and driver;
 Safety of vehicles, especially occupant protection, protection of potential crash partners
(especially vulnerable road users), crash avoidance and mitigation, roadworthiness, vehicle
loading and capacity and securing of loads in and on the vehicle;
 Driver licensing and authorisation of to drive particular class of vehicle;
 Removal of unfit vehicles and/or drivers from the road network; and
 Post-crash response and first aid, emergency preparedness and post-crash recovery and
rehabilitation.

Once the above factors have little or no relevance (i.e. problems are resolved) the organisation
shall identify suitable replacement factors that address underlying problems at that time.

The SPIs shall be monitored and reported regularly (i.e. must remain actual). In order to monitor
performance the organisation shall establish RTS objectives at relevant functions and levels.
Objectives shall be consistent with policy; be measurable (if possible); take into account
applicable requirements; be monitored; communicated and regularly updated.

As part of the planning process the organisation shall establish what must be done; what
resources are required; who is responsible; when the task is to be completed and how the results
will be evaluated.

3.5.4 Support and coordination

The organisation is expected to coordinate both internally and externally to achieve its goals.
The organisation must ensure that internal and external consultation and coordination of its
activities takes place in support of its goals, targets and implementation plans.

According to the standard the organisation shall “determine and provide the resources (human
resources, specialised skills, organisational infrastructure, technology and financial resources)
and allocation framework needed for the establishment, implementation, maintenance and
continual improvement of the RTS management systems to achieve the established objectives
and targets”.

The organisation must determine the competences required to support the RTS management
system and see that these persons have the necessary education, training and experience and
where necessary take action to supplement this. Periodic performance reviews will be required

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to evaluate the effectiveness of staff and the actions taken. It is important that competence
reviews are documented.

Staff directly or indirectly involved with the RTS management system must be made aware of
the RTS policy, the implications of not conforming to the systems’ requirements and lessons
learnt from experiences of the organisation regarding major traffic incidents or developments.

Furthermore the organisation shall have a communication strategy regarding the RTS
management system and at least cover what it communicates, when it communicates and with
whom it communicates.

A requirement of the standard is that information regarding the RTS management system is well
documented and that includes documentation required by both the standard and the
organisation and its stakeholders themselves. The extent of the documentation is determined
by the size of the organisation, the complexity of the processes and the competence of staff
involved.

However, the following requirements are stipulated:

 When creating and updating documented information this shall at least have an identification
number and description (title, date, author and/or reference number), a suitable format (e.g.
language, software version, graphics) and media (paper/electronic) and a review and
approval process indicating adequacy; and

 Documented information shall be controlled so that it is available for use whenever needed
and be suitable protected (copyright, use, confidentiality, etc.). For control purposes the
organisation must pay particular attention to document distribution, access, retrieval and
use; storage and preservation (incl. legibility), changes or modifications/errata, retention
and disposition.

3.5.5 Operations
The standard requires that the organisation determine, plan, implement and control the
processes to meet the requirements of the standard specifically by establishing criteria for these
processes; implementing controls of the processes and keeping documented information so that
it can be determined if the processes have been carried out as planned.

Furthermore, the organisation shall respond to actual fatalities or serious injuries caused by
road traffic crashes or incidents in which the organisation is involved and where possible
prevent or mitigate adverse effects. The organisation shall review its preparedness to respond
to these developments and assess the efficacy of remedial procedures. The procedures shall also
be tested where possible.

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3.5.6 Performance evaluation

The standard stipulates that the organisation shall determine what needs to be monitored, how
that monitoring will take place (measured, analysed and evaluated), when monitoring will take
place, when results are analysed and evaluated and reported.

The standard also requires that the organisation develop procedures and process to record and
document road traffic (fatal and serious injury) crashes and incidents in which the organisation
itself is involved in. These are to be analysed and underlying causes identified, remedied and
opportunities identified to implement preventative strategies.

Top management shall periodically review the performance of the organisational goals and
strategies and targets. These management reviews shall consider status of actions from previous
reviews, changes in the internal and external environments, information on the RTS
performance including trends in non-conformance and corrective actions, monitoring and
evaluation, meeting of targets and goals, etc. identify opportunities for continual improvement
(specifically chances for technology), relevant communications with stakeholders and other
parties (including complaints) and data relating to crashes and investigations.

3.5.7 Improvement
In the event of non-conformity to the requirements of the RTS management system the
organisation is expected to implement corrective action plans and to deal with the consequences
of the event. The organisation must evaluate the case and develop countermeasures to ensure it
does not occur again or that risk is minimised. If remedial steps are implemented these must be
monitored and the effectiveness evaluated and documented.

Finally the organisation is expected to have a programme aimed at the continual improvement
of the RTS management system.

3.6 The United Nations Decade of Action for Road Safety

Based on the 2009 recommendations of the Commission for Global Road Safety, the United
Nations General Assembly Resolution 64/255 (United Nations, 2011) decreed the period 2011-
2020 as the decade for action for road safety. The resolution requested the United Nations
Regional Committees and the World Health Organisation to prepare a Plan of Action which
would support the implementation of its objectives. This culminated in what is today known as
the Global Plan for the Decade of Action and which presented a framework to coordinate
activities on regional and global levels. The Global Plan is intended for not only the road
authorities but the road safety community at large, including private companies and civil society.
The document encourages accelerated investment in road safety in low and middle income
countries, supported by sustainable road safety strategies and programmes. It highlights the
need for increased political support and resource investment.

The plan relies on the underlying Safe Systems principles as adopted in the Decade of Action.
The approach aims at developing a road transport system that accounts for human error and

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the vulnerability of the human body. The premise is that humans continue to make mistakes and
crashes cannot be totally avoided although their impact (in terms on injury outcomes) can be
mitigated by providing safe and forgiving roads and vehicles. Road users have the responsibility
of abiding for rules and regulations. This is all supported by a legal and judicial system, including
effective enforcement capacity, emergency care and incident management systems, training
facilities, funding systems, research and monitoring functions as required by a Safe Systems
Approach.

Harmonisation of road safety legislation across country borders is seen to be vitally important
to achieving success.

3.6.1 Specific goal and objectives

The Global Plan (United Nations, 2011) has as its primary goal the stabilisation and reduction of
traffic fatalities by 2020. It lists eight specific objectives which are expected to attain this goal:
These are:

1. Adopting and adhering to the major UN road safety agreements and conventions;
2. Developing and implementing road safety strategies and programmes;
3. Setting of realistic road safety targets for 2020 by building on existing frameworks;
4. Strengthening road safety management capacity and infrastructure to facilitate the technical
implementation of road safety activities at all levels;
5. Improving the quality of road safety data (collection);
6. Monitoring and reporting progress of road safety performance indicators;
7. Stimulating and encouraging increased funding, improved resource deployment and
inclusion of road safety as an integral component of road infrastructure projects; and
8. Building capacities at all levels (regional to international) to address road safety.

3.6.2 Activities
The plan proposes five pillars to support the activities at local, national, regional and local levels.
The pillars into which the activities are grouped are:

 Pillar 1: Road Safety Management;

 Pillar 2: Safer Roads and Mobility;
 Pillar 3: Safer Vehicles;
 Pillar 4: Safer Road Users;
 Pillar 5: Post-crash Response.

The plan proposes a number of national activities under each pillar and these are intended to
guide countries (and regions) to develop action plans and these serve as a framework which
should be incorporated into country specific policy and strategy. To a large extent this
framework also provides the foundation used by the WHO to compile the country reports
contained in its road safety status report and this will also form the basis of the evaluation
adopted by this COMCEC study.

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Under Pillar 1: Road Safety Management there are six primary activities identified:
1. Adhering and implementing UN agreements and conventions including the Convention on
road Traffic (1998); the Convention and signs and Signals (1968) and the AETR (1970).
2. Establishing a lead agency responsible for road safety.
3. Develop a national road safety strategy, the implementation of which is to be co-ordinated
by the lead agency.
4. Setting of realistic long term road safety targets aimed at performance improvement and
gains.
5. Identifying and securing sustainable national funding sources (including aspects such as
applying 10% of road infrastructure budgets to road safety improvement; innovative
funding; budgeting targets etc.).
6. Establishing reliable and sustainable data collection systems needed to support the
evaluation and monitoring of road safety in general but also of improvement projects in
particular.

Pillar 2: Safer road and mobility also lists six core activities:
1. Promoting road safety ownership and accountability among road authorities.
2. Promoting the needs of all road users as part of sustainable transport planning, travel
demand management and land use management, including making safety impact
assessments part of the process, implementing effective access control strategies, etc.
3. Promoting the safe operation, maintenance and improvement of existing road infrastructure
by increasing the accountability of road authorities in road safety management (including
requiring them to provide detailed analysis of blackspots, remedial programmes and actions;
conducting safety assessments and inspections, etc.).
4. Promoting the development of safe new infrastructure that meets the needs of all road users
(including the setting of safety standards and requiring road authorities to adhere to these,
conducting road safety audits and Network Safety Impact Assessments).
5. Encouraging capacity building and knowledge transfer through partnerships, training and
education and development of standards.
6. Encouraging research and development in safer roads through specific research and sharing
and interchanging of research findings.

Pillar 3: Safer Vehicles proposes seven core activities:

1. Encouraging member states to apply and promulgate vehicle standards and regulations
based on those developed by the UN.
2. Encouraging the implementation of new car assessment programmes throughout the world.
3. Encouraging agreements whereby all new vehicles are equipped with seatbelts and
anchorages and that meet regulatory requirements and comply with required crash
standards.
4. Encourage the deployment of crash avoidance technology in cars and motorcycles.
5. Encourage the use of incentives for vehicles with high levels of road used protection and
discourage use and import of vehicles with lower safety standards.
6. Stimulate the application of pedestrian and other vulnerable road user protection
regulations.

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7. Encourage government officials to set an example by driving vehicles complying with the
highest safety standards.

Pillar 4: Safer road users is aimed at developing and launching programmes for improving road
user behaviour and lists the following eight core activities:
1. Increasing the awareness of road safety risk factors and preventative measures and
implementing social marketing campaigns to change attitudes and opinions.
2. Set speed limits based on evidence based standards and rules and increase compliance with
speed limits to reduce speed related crashes and injuries.
3. Set and seek compliance with drink-driving laws and standards and rules to reduce alcohol
related crashes and injuries.
4. As in 2 and 3 but aimed at the wearing of motorcycle helmets.
5. As in 2, 3 and 4 but aimed at the wearing of seat belts and use of child restraints.
6. As in 2, 3, 4 and 5 but aimed at improving operations of commercial and passenger road
transport operators and vehicle fleet operators (concept of safety culture).
7. Research and development of policies to reduce work related traffic injuries in the public,
private and informal sectors.
8. Promoting the establishment of graduated driver licensing systems.

The final pillar, Pillar 5: Post-crash response deals with improving post-crash emergency
response and treatment and has seven core activities, namely:
1. Developing pre-hospital care systems incorporating post-crash extraction care, emergency
call numbers and good practice guidelines.
2. Develop hospital trauma crash care systems and evaluate care quality.
3. Develop and provide early post-crash rehabilitation care and support to traffic crash victims.
4. Encouraging the establishment of appropriate road user insurance schemes to finance post-
crash and rehabilitation costs of crash victims.
5. Encourage crash investigation to support the legal settlement process following crashes and
to ensure equitable distribution of costs.
6. Provide incentives and stimulants to help disabled traffic victims gain appropriate
employment.
7. Encourage research and development into the improvement of post-crash response and care.

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4 Lead Road Safety Agency

The World Bank guidelines (Bliss and Breen, 2009) specify a number of key issues and tasks for
lead agencies and define the role of the agency for each of these key issues. This chapter
summarizes the key issues; the reader is referred to the guidelines for details.

The tasks and roles provide a reference framework and provide countries the opportunity to
assess the state of road safety management in general and the application of the safety systems
approach in particular in any particular country. By comparing the defined tasks and roles, using
the procedures described by the World Bank guidelines (Bliss & Breen, 2009) to what is actually
being done in a country provides a gap analysis which reveals where improvement is required.

4.1 Functional Requirements Related for a Lead Agency - Results Focus

Results focus is the primary function for a lead agency and determines the strategic direction. It
aligns policy, strategy and interventions with results and implicit in this is that there are reliable
and representative data systems, supporting a performance oriented approach to road traffic
safety management.

Table 2 summarises the principal tasks directed at results and describes the role a lead agency
should take in each of these should it wish to comply with good practice.

Table 2: The role of the Lead Agency in managing the results focus
Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Appraising current  Manage the process of governmental review of road safety
road safety performance;
performance through  Identify and bring together key stakeholders and partners that can
high level strategic and will deliver actual road safety results;
review  Initiate road safety capacity reviews and chair governmental road
safety performance reviews;
 Prepare reports, papers and bulletins reporting on road safety
performance;
 Achieve consensus on key problem areas in the road safety
management system;
 Follows up on agreed actions.
2. Adopting a far  Studies and proposes a long term and far reaching road safety vision;
reaching road safety  Discusses the road safety vision with government and other partners
vision for the longer and stakeholders and society as a whole;
term  Identifies the key partnerships needed within and outside
government for promoting the vision;
 Identifies the potential for high-level promotion and championing to
underpin the road safety strategy;
 Gets agreement on the vision and ensures that this is entrenched in
legislation;

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Tasks Lead Agency Role

 Gets agreement on shared responsibility which is implicit in the far-
reaching vision and ensures that this is clearly defined in the national
road safety strategy.
3. Analysing what can be  Reviews key road safety problems and the potential for further
achieved in the improvements in consultation with government and other
medium term partners/stakeholders;
 Draws on local and international research expertise in the reviews;
 Identifies information needs for road safety strategy development;
 Identifies the key elements of good practice results focus, system-
wide safety interventions and improved institutional arrangements
using country and international research;
 Analyses long-term trends which could affect future road safety
outcomes;
 Carries out scenario planning and (computer) modelling to develop
road safety strategies;
 Carries out cost-effectiveness reviews and public acceptability studies
of strategy interventions;
 Consults with key governmental and other partners and stakeholders
within the coordination hierarchy on the multi-sectoral strategy
options.
4. Setting quantitative  Sets up a road safety strategy unit within the lead agency;
targets by mutual  Sets up technical support groups for the target-setting process;
consent  Proposes and seeks agreement through its inter-governmental
coordination arrangements on challenging but achievable targets for
final outcomes, intermediate outcomes and institutional outputs at
the national level
 In the longer term seeks agreement with regional and local
governments on achievable road safety targets and achievable
outcomes;
 Publishes details of the targets and strategies in which the
accountabilities of the different partners and stakeholders are also
detailed;
 Monitors and reports progress at regular intervals to all involved and
adapts and refines intervention output levels where necessary.
5. Establishing  Sets out the responsibility of the lead and other agencies to achieve
mechanisms to ensure specified road safety results (outcomes and outputs) in annual
partner and performance agreements;
stakeholder  Uses Memoranda of Understanding to underline agreements about
accountability for the way in which the members work together inroad safety matters;
results  Sets performance based road safety targets and delivery of results as
a formal criterion in the performance-driven employment

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Tasks Lead Agency Role

remuneration package of the lead agency Chief Executive and senior
management team;
 Encourages outputs and contributions of a wider group of partners
and stakeholders based on formal and published declarations of
intent to carry out specific interventions which contribute to
improved road safety results.

4.2 Functional Requirements for a Lead Agency – Institutional Management

The primary functions of a lead agency are presented below, representing the six institutional
management functions, as introduced in Figure 4.

4.2.1 Coordination
Countries that apply the Safe System approach have a lead agency which has as one of its
principal functions the coordination of road safety matters within and across all levels of
government.

According to the Country Guidelines there are four primary tasks related to coordination and
the role of the Lead Agency in this is reflected in Table 3.

Table 3: Lead Agency role in coordination

Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Horizontal  Decision-making on the national road safety targets and strategy;
coordination across  Identifies the key governmental agencies which need to be brought
central government together to deliver road safety results and to agree on a national
road safety strategy;
 Proposes and seeks agreement on a decision making hierarchy
within governmental agencies and organisational structures and
arrangements in support of this;
 Establishes the working arrangements of the different levels of the
coordination hierarchy from the senior decision making levels to the
consultation and thematic support levels;
 Secures the support of different levels of management from key
agencies to coordination tasks with special emphasis on the senior
safety management level which is at the core of the coordination
hierarchy;
 Convenes and chairs the main committees;
 Prepares agendas, minutes and documents for meetings of the
different coordination committees;
 Prepares Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) to set out the roles
and responsibilities of the key agencies and agreements about
delivery of the various components of the road safety strategy;

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Tasks Lead Agency Role

 Identifies and proposes the possible contributions which might be
made by different agencies to the national road safety strategy with
reference to international good practice;
 Organises appropriate follow up to monitor and ensure delivery;
 Mobilises resources for the national road safety strategy from as
many sustainable sources as possible using the coordination
platform;
 Proposes and secures a budget for inter-governmental coordination
and ensures that sufficient in-house capacity is established;
 Establishes a coordination secretariat within the lead agency to
provide multi-disciplinary technical support to the coordinating
agency and its sub-committees.
2. Vertical coordination  Manages vertical coordination between central, regional and local
from central through to government in support of delivering on stated targets;
local government level  Ensures that the roles and responsibilities of the different levels of
government for different aspects of road safety are set out in
legislation, including a legal duty to act on the part of lower levels of
government;
 Includes representation of the regions and municipalities in national
coordination bodies and arrangements;
 Proposes and seeks agreement of legislative requirements for the
regions and municipalities to establish coordination arrangements
to achieve results;
 Establishes funding mechanisms and prepares implementation tools
to assist and encourage lower levels of government in carrying out
results-based interventions identified in the national road safety
strategy;
 Helps to establish community partnerships with local road safety
coordinators financed by the lead agency to stimulate local action.
3. Develop and maintain  Identifies, establishes, funds and provides tools for key partnerships
specific delivery between government agencies. It ensures that local and national
partnerships between government and police forces work closely to achieve a common
government, NGO, reporting standard where responsibilities for collecting data are
community and devolved. It establishes crash databases and provides advice on data
business at the central, management and analysis;
regional and local  Makes use of MoU and agreements to cement partnerships between
levels the lead agency and key partners and stakeholders;
 Encourages and helps to fund multi-sectoral local partnerships by
engaging the key partners and stakeholders to implement good
practice interventions;

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Tasks Lead Agency Role

 Develops tools for use by local authorities such as road safety
calendars, safety management systems, crash reduction studies or
good practice guidelines, often in association with and support of the
appropriate professional or safety organisation;
 Engages the non-governmental sector to help deliver results. While
effective NGOs are independent and receive funding from a variety
of sources to preserve their impartiality, the lead agency is an
important source of support;
 Establishes or helps to establish new partnerships or organisations
in support of the country targets and results focus and supporting
institutional management functions;
 Provides core funding; technical support and pump priming
(government investment in commercial sector to stimulate the
economy);
 Engages the business sector in support of a range of institutional
management functions needed to deliver results;
 Establishes a national strategy for work-related road safety and
requires safety provision in all in-house transport contracts to
stimulate local industry;
 Includes business sector representation in the national strategy
consultation/reference group in the national road safety
coordination hierarchy;
 Establishes well-publicised agreements involving companies in key
activities in support of the strategy.
4. Parliamentary  Engages and encourages parliamentary relations at central, regional
relations at central, and local levels to ensure support for the desired focus on results;
regional and local  Provides support to parliamentary liaison staff to aid the process of
levels communication between the executive and Parliament;
 Presents an annual report to Parliament on road safety progress;
 Encourages through its Ministers the establishment of a dedicated
all party road safety committee to champion road safety within the
parliamentary process, the media and society at large; parliamentary
hearings on aspects of road safety by relevant parliamentary
committees; and parliamentary legislation on road safety
 Supports the production of road safety guidance for locally elected
representatives to encourage local leadership and evidence based
practice at the local level in partnership with NGOs, local authority
association;
 Includes all party parliamentary road safety organisations in the
advisory group of road safety coordinating bodies.
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

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4.2.2 Legislation
This management function defines the legal framework from within which the organisations and
institutions responsible for road safety must function. It defines the responsibility,
accountability, intervention and associated institutional management functions needed to
achieve the desired result. The legislative function that the Lead Agency will have to support
concerns providing the legal instruments necessary to govern road safety management and to
specify the legal boundaries of institutions in terms of their responsibilities, accountabilities,
interventions and institutional management functions to achieve the desired focus on results.
The Country Guidelines define four primary tasks for this function and the lead agency’s role in
this is defined in Table 4.

Table 4: Lead Agency role in legislation

Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Reviewing the  Periodically conduct reviews to benchmark international good practice,
scope of the identify necessary legislative requirements for new road safety strategies
legislative and adapt the rules and standards according to changing technological
framework advances;
 Carry out in-house reviews of the costs and benefits of potential legislative
requirements.
2. Developing and  Reviews different alternatives to achieving specific policy objectives;
updating  Carries out early consultation with government partners within the
legislation coordination and consultation bodies. These discussions must anticipate
needed for the political and other developments and take place well before the subject
road safety becomes matter for Cabinet discussion;
strategy  Uses its coordination arrangements to ensure progress with legislative
development important for the strategy, where the right of initiative rests
with other government departments;
 Consults with a broad range of stakeholders and the public on proposals
for developing and updating enforceable standards and rules;
 Puts together small teams of in-house policy experts and legislative
experts;
 Uses legislative pilots.
3. Consolidating  Conducts periodic reviews to consolidate key legislation (e.g., vehicle type
legislation approval information and road rules which have evolved over the
decades) to improve ease of use.
4. Securing  Finds opportunities for allocating legal resources (amendment,
legislative application, etc.) throughout government and parliamentary programs;
resources for  Encourages all-party parliamentary interest in road safety through regular
road safety engagement and briefing and addressing specifically legislative matters.
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

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4.2.3 Funding and resource allocation

This function relates to financing the operational budget/s of the lead agency responsible for
road safety management and the associated interventions needed to achieve the intended
results in a sustainable manner. It also pertains to the efficient allocation of resources based on
a rational evaluation framework (i.e. based on quantitative assessment of cost and benefit in
relation to stated objectives). The Country Guidelines have identified two primary tasks and the
role of the lead agency with respect to these are summarised in Table 5.

Table 5: Lead Agency role in funding and resource allocation

Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Ensuring  Reviews and makes a strong case to government for improved funding
sustainable mechanisms on the basis of in-house or external benchmarking of international
funding good practice;
sources  Encourages the establishment of dedicated funding sources for road safety,
(e.g., from road user fees and road funds), which provide a means of financing
road safety outputs from different ministries; and ensures that road safety
objectives and management structure for such funds are clearly defined in
legislation;
 Ensures that opportunities for additional funding from insurance and business
sectors are exploited for activity to achieve results by means of establishing
levies on insurance premiums and encouraging business sponsorship;
 Earmarks funds, wherever possible, from central government to key
stakeholders at regional and local levels for key outputs set out in the national
road safety strategy;
 Manages hypothecated monies from road traffic fines for safety work.
2. Establishing  Reviews and estimates, often with external technical support, the value of
procedures preventing road traffic deaths and serious injuries;
to guide the  Develops and uses a nationally recognised basis for project evaluation based
allocation of on an economic appraisal of measures using the value of preventing death and
resources serious injury to identify priorities;
across safety  Ensures sufficient in-house lead agency capacity for the preparation of safety
programmes. budgets and allocation of resources based on a cost-effectiveness and cost
benefit analyses;
 Makes proposals to other governmental partners concerning the content of
their annual budgets and ensuring that the annual performance agreements of
the key governmental stakeholders reflect their accountability for agreed road
safety strategy outputs;
 Establishes specific procedures to guide allocation of resources across safety
programs;
 Makes business cases to coordination bodies and Cabinet for the allocation of
resources based on a cost-effectiveness and cost-benefit analyses, recognising
that road safety improvements can also meet other governmental objectives.
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

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4.2.4 Promotion
Promotion relates to the process of communicating with the public on road safety matters and
should be a core business of government and society to emphasise the shared social
responsibility to develop, implement and support road safety improvement initiatives and
interventions that aim at meeting stated targets. The World Bank Guidelines identify seven
primary tasks in which the lead agency responsible for road safety management has a role
(Table 6).

Table 6: Lead Agency role in the promotion function

Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Promotion of a far-  Has the leading role in promoting the shared responsibility for
reaching road safety vision achieving road safety results by creating and articulating a far-
or goal reaching vision and concepts for a safer road traffic system.
2. Championing and  Utilises every relevant opportunity to engage the President or
promotion at a high level Prime Minister in launching national targeted road safety
strategies and programs to ensure maximum political authority
and publicity;
 encourages all Ministers in the road safety partnership to play an
active role in creating awareness about road safety challenges
and promoting policy initiatives in the media;
 Develops and nurtures a core group of leading senior
professionals in the road safety field (leading academics, casualty
surgeons, chief police officers, interested parliamentarians from
all parties, community leaders, etc.) who advocate and forge
support for important policy development.
3. Multi-sectoral promotion  Stimulates and invests in multi-sectoral promotion of the
of effective interventions strategy and evidence-based interventions through existing and
and shared responsibility new road safety partnerships.
4. Leading by example with  devises fleet policies for the lead agency based on good practice
in-house road safety and encourages wider use;
policies (e.g. safety  Specifies road safety demands in the transport contracts
culture) developed by the lead agency with organisations (e.g., car rental,
taxi hire, and road haulage companies).
5. Developing and  Contributes to the development and support of safety rating
supporting safety rating programs and their organisation together with road user and
programs and the consumer groups.
publication of the results
6. Carrying out national  Ensures that regular information is available and accessible on
advertising the key road safety problems as well as upcoming policy
initiatives to achieve results;
 Develops in-house capacity for road safety promotion as well as
contracting out targeted road safety advertising in support of the
major themes of the national road safety strategy.

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Tasks Lead Agency Role

7. Encouraging promotion at  Mobilises local leadership and support to help achieve road
the local level safety strategy goals;
 Develops and funds targeted community road safety programs
and supports local road safety coordinators.
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

4.2.5 Monitoring and evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation deal with the on-going and systematic measurement of road safety
performance measures and indicators in order to assess and evaluate the efficacy of introduced
measures and interventions. The Country Guidelines have identified thee core tasks in which
the lead agency has a dominant role (Table 7).

Table 7: Lead Agency role in monitoring and evaluation

Tasks Lead Agency role
1. Establishing and  Establishes databases to identify and monitor final and intermediate
supporting data outcomes and outputs;
systems to set and  Establishes and publishes the socio-economic cost of road traffic
monitor final and injuries;
intermediate outcome  Establishes central computerised transport and driver licensing
and output targets registries to manage data on the number of vehicles and drivers on
the road which are easily accessible for enforcement agencies;
 Establishes travel patterns and exposure in the system of different
types of road use through periodic national travel surveys (mobility
surveys);
 Establishes linkages between police reports and hospital admissions
data or to assess levels of underreporting;
 Establishes linkages between national causes of death statistics to
assess and validate traffic fatalities;
 Establishes or supports existing safety rating programs on new cars
and road networks which provide SPIs;
 Conducts before and after studies to establish the effectiveness of
specific road safety measures and in-depth studies to ascertain
contributory factors, and the causes and consequences of injury;
 Establishes or adopts tools for local highway and police authorities to
undertake data collection, analysis and monitoring techniques and
database management.

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2. Transparent review of  Conducts regular reviews of the progress of the national road safety
the national road strategy in achieving results;
safety strategy and its  Establishes transparent independent peer reviews of road safety
performance management capacity in terms of results, interventions and
institutional management functions;
 Establishes a road traffic inspectorate to monitor the rate and quality
of implementation of its road safety strategy;
 Reports road safety results and progress made and make interactive
crash data systems available on the Internet.
3. Making any necessary  Ensures that the results of monitoring and evaluation are presented
adjustments to and discussed at all levels of the road safety strategy coordination
achieve the desired hierarchy to improve the focus on achieving results (see Results
results Focus section).
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

4.2.6 Research and development and technology transfer

This is an integral and essential component of any road safety management system and relates
to the timely identification of changes in the system, the development of new techniques and
methods, the application of new knowledge and the transfer and application of knowledge to
continually improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the system in order to keep meeting the
desired results.

In terms of R&D and technology transfer the Country Guidelines identify six primary tasks which
the leading agency has a predominant role in and these are listed in Table 8.

Table 8: Lead Agency role in the research and development and technology transfer
Tasks Lead Agency Role
1. Developing capacity  Ensures in-house capacity for road safety research and management
for multi-disciplinary as well as contracting out to road safety research organisations as
research and road safety activity increases;
knowledge transfer  Supports and develops key partnerships with independent road
safety research organisations for a range of road safety management
functions.
2. Creating a national  Establishes with its partners a national road safety research program
road safety research to address the needs of the road safety strategy with annual review of
strategy and annual needs and consultation with external experts.
programme
3. Securing sources of  Assigns specific annual budgets for road safety research for in-house
sustainable funding and external research;
for road safety  Establishes levies on motor vehicle insurance premiums in support of
research road safety research;
 Encourages business sponsorship for public sector research.

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4. Training and  Employs a variety of means for training and knowledge transfer
professional exchange including professional exchange and attendance at road safety
courses, seminars and workshops.
5. Establishing good  Develops in-house or contracts out to research and professional
practice guidelines organisations the production and dissemination of good practice
guidelines which comprise a synthesis of universal road safety
principles in specific areas of road safety, advice on the general
means of applying them and illustrative case studies.
6. Setting up  Develops and funds demonstration projects in areas which offer large
demonstration potential for road casualty reduction and uses the successful results
projects to roll-out the projects nationally.
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

4.3 Requirements Related to Interventions

Interventions are aimed at the source of the problem and are taken at the level where they occur
and serve as the bridge between the management functions and the outcomes. They are directed
at addressing problems related to the roads, drivers and vehicles, or managing the outcomes of
failures where these occur.

A lead agency has a guiding role in this and although it cannot be held accountable for all
interventions and their outcomes (this is the responsibility of the authority in whose jurisdiction
the problem is evident), the lead agency has a coordinating role in seeing that interventions are
taking at a system level rather than isolated and uncoordinated actions aimed at incidental
problems that have little effect on overall outcomes. These interventions are typically system
interventions and directed at large scale implementation requiring standardisation and
uniformity in approach. This demands a coordinated approach.

Interventions are aimed at three dimensions, as presented in Table 9 and the lead agency has
the responsibility of providing the supporting framework necessary for implementing the
intervention.

Table 9: Interventions and supporting lead agency functions

Intervention Level or Dimension Examples of Supporting Road Safety Functions
1. Planning, design, operation and  Road network classification (safety)
use of road network  Blackspot programme
 Safe road design manuals
 RSIA/NSM/RSI/RSA
 Speed management
 Pedestrian Management plans

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2. Entry and exit of vehicles and  Driver licensing and testing

road users using the network  Vehicle registration and licensing
 Vehicle roadworthiness
 Vehicle and driver and standards
 Traffic offences
 Offence monitoring
 PT vehicle standards
 Commercial vehicles
3. Treatment of crash victims  Emergency response goals and monitoring
 Fleet assessment
 Quality reviews emergency and trauma care
 Protocols and standards
Source: adapted from Bliss and Breen, 2009

4.3.1 Planning, design, operation and use of the road network

The planning, design, operation and use of the road network (including terminal and other
transport facilities) relate to the standards and guidelines that are applied to providing,
maintaining, operating and managing the road network. For road safety it is of paramount
importance that the network is provided with the necessary safety features to ensure the safety
of the users and the safety between users. To facilitate that, the elements of road network design
must comply with safety standards, road users must comply with restrictions set to ensure safe
operation and engineers must ensure that the roads are maintained at a level that these
standards are not compromised.

From a safe systems perspective the following need to be adopted:

 Comprehensive safety standards and rules and performance targets for the planning, design,
operation and use of roads;
 Aligning speed limits with safe systems design principles;
 Ensuring that compliance regimes are in place and that users adhere to the safety rules and
standards; and
 That safety standards and rules take into account the specific needs of high risk road user
groups.

A Safe Systems Approach provides a road environment where roads incorporate concepts such
as Self Explaining Roads (SER (Matena et al., 2008)) and Forgiving Roadsides. In other words,
roads are designed and constructed in such a manner that the risk of crashes is minimized (i.e.
the design of the road will not be directly attributable to a crash) and there where they do occur,
the severity of the crash will be minimized. Roads typically have features such as adequate clear
zones, no roadside hazards; breakaway constructions, safe barriers, no conflicts between
opposing traffic, slow and fast traffic physically separated (in time and/or space), etc.

From an operational perspective, road users are restricted in their use of the network by
prohibitions, speed restrictions and other legal frameworks, e.g. controlling drink driving;

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driving hours; etc. A key concept in this thinking is the idea of a road network classification
whereby speed limits are the logical result of the relationship between the function, form and
use of the road. The Dutch Sustainable Safety system (Koornstra et al., 1992; Schermers, 1999;
Schermers & Vliet, 2001; Wegman & Aarts, 2006) relies on five principles which have been
interpreted in functional requirements for each of the defined road categories (through roads,
distributor roads and access roads in rural areas and distributor and access roads in urban
areas). Each of these road categories has its own speed regime (120/100; 80 and 60 km/h in
rural areas and 50 and 30 km/h in urban areas) which is the logical result of the interaction
between the different road users and conflict types that can be expected or that occur. Such a
road network incorporates safe design features, network structure and unique elements that
make the road types clearly distinguishable to road users; and whereby they know what type of
road it is, the speed limit, what interactions to expect and what types of road users and
behaviours to expect.

4.3.2 Control over vehicles using the road network

This aspect relates to the conditions under which vehicles can safely make use of the road
network. The country is to set safety standards and rules and control these to ensure that
vehicles on its roads continually meet these safety standards.

Making certain safety features compulsory to vehicles using the road network, lobbying
manufacturers to provide standard safety features, prohibiting certain vehicles, campaigning
among potential buyers to buy vehicles with higher safety ratings etc. are all actions that are
supportive of the concept of safer vehicles.

The current vehicle quality control system in place provide for annual roadworthiness testing
of the commercial classes of vehicles, but other vehicles are only tested for roadworthiness at a
change of hands.

4.3.3 Control of road users using the road network

This aspect concerns specifically the conditions which determine how road users can safely
move around the road network. Interventions typically set the safety standards and rules and
continuing compliance requirements that will ensure the safety of the individual concerned but
also that of fellow road users.

4.3.4 Treatment of road crash victims on the road network

This relates specifically the recovery and treatment of crash victims from the roads after a crash.
It concerns fast and efficient emergency response, minimizing travel time to the scene, efficient
and correct diagnosis of trauma and stabilization if victims at the scene, fast and efficient
transport to a hospital/treatment centre, effective emergency and trauma care and eventual
rehabilitation.

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5 Road Safety Development Phases

5.1 Typical Road Safety Development Phases

In most countries that practice a Safe Systems Approach to road safety management or where
road safety management is traditionally high on the political agenda, i.e. have an active policy
for managing road safety effectively, there is a clear relationship between the road safety
initiatives and policies and the longer term effects on road safety. Figure 9 gives an example of
such policy developments in the Netherlands.

Figure 9: Policy development and investment into road safety improvements

Investment in road safety

Road safety casualties

Legislation
Motorway construction
Passive safety
Behavioural change
Decentralization
Sustainable safety
ITS application

1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000 2010

Source: SWOV

Figure 9 illustrates three development phases (establishment, growth and consolidation) and
the level of investment required in these phases. Low investment is growing to a peak and
tapering off by which stage the next policy has taken up the same cycle. If one considers the right
vertical axis to represent the number of road deaths then the effect of an integrated approach to
policy development and implementation, backed by sustained investment (left vertical axis),
leads to a continual decrease in the number of fatalities and serious injuries. This figure also
illustrates that most new policy or technological development and implementation takes time
before an effect on road crashes can be established.

As an example, typically growing motorisation leads to an increased demand for improved road
infrastructure. However, this takes time to realise and before that is implemented road crashes
can be expected to increase before decreasing. Also important in this is that successful past
policies are not totally discarded, they become part of the new initiatives. In this way road safety
management evolves toward an integrated approach encompassing road users, roads and
vehicles and covering the traditional three E’s of engineering, enforcement and education. This
progression ultimately led to countries such as the Netherlands and Sweden adopting a holistic
approach which encapsulates all past thinking on road safety management into what today is
the Safe Systems Approach (avoid crashes and where they cannot be avoided, mitigate the injury
effect).

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5.2 A Framework of Road Safety Development Phases

The combined effect of the policy development cycles, as presented in Figure 9 can be applied
to a general framework of road safety development phases, resulting in three overall phases of
road safety development, i.e. establishment, growth and maturity.

In these three overall phases the effects of the individual policy cycles, for example on legislation
or motorway construction, are aggregated, resulting in an effect as presented in Figure 10.

Figure 10: Road safety development phases

Establishment Growth Maturity
Investment in road safety

Road safety casualties

Time
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

5.3 Typical Road Safety Characteristics Per Road Safety Development Phase
For the three identified road safety development phases typical road safety characterises can be
described at the level of the five road safety pillars, as presented in Table 10.

Table 10: Road safety development phases and typical characteristics

Development Establishment Growth Consolidation
Phases
Road safety  No/limited political  Road safety growing  Well-developed
management will concern with political political support
 Limited interaction support.  Fair to high degree of
between stakeholders  Limited funding integrated
 Lack of coordination,  Treatment segregated coordination
no integrated  Limited coordination  Fair to adequate
approach  Limited local research funding
 Limited funding  Limited monitoring  Supporting legislative
 Weak legal evaluation regulatory framework
framework  Fair legislative  Intergraded action
 Limited supporting framework programme
research  Targeted research
 No local research

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Development Establishment Growth Consolidation

Phases
Safer roads and  Underdeveloped road  Developing road  Developed road
mobility network network network
 Limited sized network  Varying design  Good public transport
 Poor road conditions standards facilities
 Lack of road  Fair road  Integrated planning
standards maintenance and development
 Limited capacity in  Limited attention for  Multimodal systems
road management vulnerable road users  Good quality facilities
 Limited attention for  Developing public
vulnerable road users transportation
facilities
Safer vehicles  Low car ownership  Growing car  Stabilised car
and low vehicle ownership ownership
mileage  High age of vehicles  Low age of vehicles
 Limited vehicle  Developing public  International vehicle
standards transportation standards applied
 High age of vehicles  Standard
 Limited roadworthy requirements for new
tests and existing vehicles
 Weak public  Good public
transportation transportation
Safer road users  Low quality drivers  Growing number of  Good quality drivers
 Limited road safety drivers  Low infringement
awareness (speeding,  Low seatbelt rate rate
helmets, alcohol, seat  Low adherence of  Penalty point driver
belts, child restraints) traffic laws licensing
 Limited effective road  Improving critical  High and visible
safety education offence rates enforcement
 Ad hoc enforcement  Increased  High compliance rates
aimed at income enforcement to critical offences
generation vs safety  Ad hoc education and  High awareness of
promotional road safety
campaigns  Well established
training and
educational programs
 Strict control for
licensing
Post-crash  Limited number of  Ambulances and  Adequate number of
response ambulances trauma centres in trauma centres and
 Limited trauma major urban areas personnel
centres  High quality protocols

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Development Establishment Growth Consolidation

Phases
 No protocols on road  Reasonable levels of  Performance
crashes training monitoring and
 Protocols available evaluation of targets
Road safety  Low quality crash  Poor to reasonable  Moderate to high
data data quality crash data quality crash data
 No crash management  Limited controls and  Exposure data widely
system verification available
 Poor registration and  Locations generally  Location specific
reporting known  Enforcement data
 Inadequate system  Limited critical available
protocols offence and  Critical offences data
 Poor control checks enforcement data available
and balances
 Limited exposure data
 Poor location data
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

5.4 Typical Policy Measures Per Road Safety Development Phase

The framework of road safety development phases indicates that characteristics and typical
problems differ per road safety development phase. Consequently, the measures and tasks that
are needed to improve road safety also differ per road safety development phase. As an example,
a country that is in the establishment phase is often phased with an inadequate legal framework
and an underdeveloped road network, resulting in a need for measures aimed at creating a solid
legal framework and at developing basic infrastructure, with attention for vulnerable road
users. In countries that have entered into the growth or maturity phase, needs have changes and
so have the consequent measures. Table 11 presents examples of typical measures and tasks per
development phase.

Table 11: Typical measures and tasks per road safety development phase
Development Establishment Growth Consolidation
Phases
Road safety  Garner political  Foster relationships to  Maintaining high
management support for road maintain political quality road safety
safety support for road management
 Improvement of poor safety information systems
to medium quality  Development of  Appraising current
road safety medium to high road safety
information systems quality management performance
 Development of co- information system through high level
ordination structures  Coordination of strategic review
central levels  Adopting a far
reaching road safety

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 Assigning lead agency  Adopting short to vision for the longer

responsible for road medium term road term
safety management safety targets  Setting quantitative
 Development of  Analysing what can be targets by mutual
coordination achieve in the medium consent
structures term  Establishing
 Development of policy  Develop and maintain mechanisms to
review procedures specific delivery ensure partner and
 Setting of short term partnerships between stakeholder
targets and long term government, NGO, accountability for
initiatives community and results
 Develop and maintain business at the  Horizontal and
specific delivery central, regional and vertical coordination
partnerships between local levels across all
government, NGO, government level
community and  Develop and
business at the maintain specific
central, regional and delivery
local levels partnerships
between
government, NGO,
community and
business at the
central, regional and
local levels
 Parliamentary
relations at central,
regional and local
levels
 Establish
transparent
independent peer
reviews of road
safety management
capacity in terms of
results, interventions
and institutional
management
functions;
 Establish a road
traffic inspectorate
to monitor the rate
and quality of
implementation of
its road safety
strategy

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Safer roads and  Develop Road  Implements large  Maintains road

mobility network scale remedial road network standards
categorisation plans improvement projects  Continual
 Develop appropriate  Implements strategic improvement and
functional and road network review of road
operational development plans design standards and
characteristics for  Implements large approaches
road types scale improvement  Conducts road safety
 Setting of appropriate projects for vulnerable audits, Road safety
speed limits road users inspections and
 Encourages PT use  Adopts an integrated reviews network
 Develops strategies approach to road safety management
and plans for infrastructure  Develops and funds
vulnerable road users planning and demonstration
 Secures funding for provision projects in areas
development projects  Adopts a Safe Systems which offer large
Approach to road potential for road
design casualty reduction
and uses the
successful results to
roll-out the projects
nationally
Safer vehicles  Establish vehicle  Maintain and improve  Set safety standards
registration registers vehicle registration and rules and
 Develop minimum and licensing legislate the use of
standards for entry of  Vehicle vehicles on public
vehicles on public roadworthiness roads
roads  Vehicle standards  Enforce and control
 Develop  Traffic offence standards
roadworthiness monitoring of continually
criteria and roadworthiness  Make certain safety
monitoring systems  Public transportation features compulsory
 Develop enforcement vehicle standards to vehicles using the
strategies  Commercial vehicle road network
 Set standards and standards  Lobby
regulations regarding manufacturers to
the use of vehicles provide standard
safety features
 prohibit certain
vehicles
 Campaigning among
potential buyers to
buy vehicles with
higher safety ratings
etc.

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 Establish or supports
existing safety rating
programs on new
cars and road
networks which
provide road safety
indicators
Safer road users  Set the safety  Review and set the  Nurture and support
standards and rules safety standards and a road user
and continuing rules for continuing behaviour culture
compliance road user compliance based on compliance
requirements that will  Driver licensing and  Set the safety
ensure the safety of testing standards and rules
the individual  Offences monitoring and continuing
concerned but also  Targeted law compliance
that of fellow road enforcement and requirements that
users critical driver offences will ensure the safety
 Develop standards for monitor of the individual
driver licensing,  Informed educational concerned but also
testing and appraisal and publicity that of fellow road
 Driver offences campaigns for users
monitoring improved road user  Reviewing the scope
 Develop and behaviours of the legislative
implement  Securing legislative framework
educational resources for road  Developing and
programmes for safety updating legislation
school children needed for the road
 Develop strategies to safety strategy
improve safety of  Consolidating
vulnerable road users legislation
 Employs a variety of
means for training
and knowledge
transfer
 Development and
dissemination of
good practice
guidelines
Post-crash  Review the  Emergency response  Maintain and
response capabilities and goals and monitoring improve fast and
capacity of trauma  Fleet assessment efficient emergency
response units  Quality reviews response
 Establish key emergency and  minimizing travel
performance data and trauma care time to the scene,
set targets  Protocols and  Improve efficient
standards and correct diagnosis

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 Improving Road Safety
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 Develop monitoring  Funding for of trauma and

systems emergency and stabilization
 Implement regional trauma care  Fast and efficient
pilot projects transport to a
 Develop strategies to hospital/treatment
improve capacity and centre,
resource allocation for  Maintain and
trauma response and improve effective
management emergency and
trauma care and
eventual
rehabilitation
Road safety data  Establish central  Evaluate and improve  Establish databases
computerised crash registrations to identify and
transport and driver  Develop supportive monitor final
licensing registries to road safety indicators outcomes and road
manage data on the  Establish central safety indicators and
number of vehicles computerised their outputs;
and drivers on the transport and driver  Establish and
road which are easily licensing registries to publishes the socio-
accessible for manage data on the economic cost of
enforcement agencies; number of vehicles road traffic injuries;
 Establish a reliable and drivers on the  Establish travel
crash reporting and road which are easily patterns and
recording system accessible for exposure in the
 Develop programmes enforcement agencies system of different
to obtain  Establish linkages types of road use
supplementary data between national through periodic
for road safety causes of death national travel
management (traffic statistics to assess and (mobility) surveys;
volumes; speeds; etc.) validate fatalities;  Establish linkages
 Establish or adopt between police
tools for local highway reports and hospital
and police authorities admissions data or to
to undertake data assess levels of
collection, analysis underreporting;
and monitoring  Conduct before and
techniques and after studies to
database management establish the
 Report road safety effectiveness of
results and progress specific road safety
made and make measures ;
interactive crash data
systems available on
the Internet
Source: SWOV

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Countries can be placed in the framework of road safety development phases, based on their
road safety characteristics. Typical road safety measures that are linked to the specific road
safety development phase, as identified in Table 10, can then be considered. A next step would
be to tailor these measures to the situation and specific needs of the country. The phased
development also allows countries to look beyond today’s needs and anticipate on what comes
next and prepare for future road safety measures.

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Section 2: ROAD SAFETY IN OIC MEMBER COUNTRIES

6 Road Safety Performance of OIC Member Countries

This chapter presents the road safety performance of OIC member countries. The performance
is presented at an individual country level and as a comparison between countries, both at OIC
level and non-OIC level. This is a complex subject, as the performance on road safety in a country
depends on many factors, such as motor vehicle fleet size, types of vehicles and quality and
design of roads. Also, income level is relevant, as low income countries may face a rapid increase
of motorisation, whereas high income countries can invest in safe infrastructure (Kopits &
Cropper, 2005).

6.1 General Information on OIC Member Countries

6.1.1 The OIC Member Countries
The OIC has 57 member countries, as presented in Table 12. This review includes all OIC
member countries for which data were reported in the latest WHO report (WHO, 2015b).

Table 12: OIC Member Countries

Countries Abbr. Countries Abbr. Countries Abbr.
Afghanistan AFG Guyana GUY Pakistan PAK
Albania ALB Indonesia IDN Palestine
Algeria DZA Iran IRN Qatar QAT
Azerbaijan AZE Iraq IRQ Saudi Arabia SAU
Bahrain BHR Jordan JOR Senegal SEN
Bangladesh BGD Kazakhstan KAZ Sierra Leone SLE
Benin BEN Kuwait KWT Somalia SOM
Brunei Darussalam Kyrgyz Republic KGZ Sudan SDN
Burkina Faso BFA Lebanon LBN Suriname SUR
Cameroon CMR Libya LBY Syrian
Chad TCD Malaysia MYS Tajikistan TJK
Comoros Maldives MDV Togo TGO
Cote d'Ivoire CIV Mali MLI Tunisia TUN
Djibouti DJI Mauritania MRT Turkey TUR
Egypt EGY Morocco MAR Turkmenistan TKM
Gabon GAB Mozambique MOZ Uganda UGA
Gambia, The GMB Niger NER United Arab Emirates ARE
Guinea GIN Nigeria NGA Uzbekistan UZB
Guinea-Bissau GNB Oman OMN Yemen YEM
Note: for four countries there are no abbreviations used; for these countries there is also no data available.

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6.1.2 Key characteristics of OIC member countries per region

Table 13 to Table 15 provide some general transport and related statistics for countries in each
of the three OIC regions; i.e. the African, Arab and Asian region.

African Region
For the African region these statistics reveal that vehicle ownership rates in OIC countries is
generally very low (below 50 vehicles/1,000 population) whereas the traffic mortality rates
(number of fatalities per 100,000 population) is relatively high (around 25 traffic
deaths/100,000 population) when compared to for example western countries. Developed
(mostly high income) western countries typically have vehicle ownership rates above 500
vehicles/1,000 population and traffic mortality rates below 10 deaths/100,000 population
(many countries with rates in the region of 3-6 per 100,000). However, the car ownership and
mortality rates of OIC countries in Africa do not appear to differ markedly from non-OIC
countries on the continent. The average vehicle ownership of OIC countries is 33 per 1000
population whereas the average for all countries on the continent is 25 per 1000 (World Bank,
2013; 2014). However, given the low vehicle ownership rates, mortality values are high and
suggest that many traffic victims are vulnerable road users (including moped riders and
cyclists). All OIC countries in the African region fall into the low to middle income categories,
which could explain the relatively low vehicle ownership rates.

Table 13: Key statistics of OIC countries in the African region

Vehicle Mortality rate
Population pcGNI Income Estimated
Country ownership [deaths/100,000
[million] [US$] group road deaths
(v./1,000 p.) population]
Niger 17.8 18 400 Low 4,706 26.4
Guinea 11.7 3 460 Low 3,211 27.3
Gambia 1.8 29 500 Low 544 29.4
Togo 6.8 9 530 Low 2,123 31.1
Uganda 37.6 33 550 Low 10,280 27.4
Guinea-Bissau 1.7 37 590 Low 468 27.5
Mozambique 25.8 21 610 Low 8,173 31.7
Sierra Leone 6.1 11 660 Low 1,661 27.2
Burkina Faso 16.9 91 670 Low 5,072 30.0
Mali 15.3 19 670 Low 3,920 25.6
Benin 10.3 3 790 Low 2,855 27.7
Chad 12.8 49 1,020 Low 3,089 24.1
Senegal 14.1 28 1,050 Middle 3,844 27.2
Cameroon 22.3 1,290 Middle 6,136 27.6
Ivory Coast 20.3 29 1,450 Middle 4,924 24.2
Nigeria 173.6 33 2,710 Middle 35,641 20.5
Gabon 1.7 117 10,650 Middle 383 22.9
Total 396,6 97,030
Weighted Avg. 30 1,598.64 24. 5
Source: WHO (WHO, 2015b)
Note: Weighted averages based on population data

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Arab Region
OIC countries in the Arab region are all middle to high income countries and vehicle ownership
rates are also markedly higher than OIC countries in the African region. However, on average
the mortality rates are only marginally lower than the African countries, but significantly higher
than those in high income countries in for example Europe. The mortality rates in some OIC
countries in the Arab region are significantly lower (e.g. Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab
Emirates) than others. With the exception of Egypt, vehicle ownership rates in these countries
also tend to be higher implying that the supporting road infrastructure is of a better quality
resulting in fewer fatalities, also among vulnerable road users. Amongst the Arab countries,
Libya shows an extremely high mortality rate and this data should be treated with some caution.
If these data are correct, Libya’s road safety situation deserves special attention.

Table 14: Key statistics of OIC countries in the Arab region

Vehicle Mortality rate
Population Income Estimated
Country ownership pcGNI [US$] [deaths/100,000
[million] group road deaths
(v./1,000 p.) population]
Djibouti .9 1,030 Middle 216 24.7
Mauritania 3.9 107 1,060 Middle 952 24.5
Yemen 24.4 49 1,330 Middle 5,248 21.5
Sudan 38. 8 1,550 Middle 9,221 24.3
Morocco 33. 100 3,020 Middle 6,870 20.8
Egypt 82.1 86 3,140 Middle 10,466 12.8
Tunisia 11. 158 4,200 Middle 2,679 24.4
Jordan 7.3 174 4,950 Middle 1,913 26.3
Algeria 39.2 186 5,330 Middle 9,337 23.8
Iraq 33.8 134 6,720 Middle 6,826 20.2
Lebanon 4.8 348 9,870 Middle 1,088 22.6
Libya 6.2 573 12,930 Middle 4,554 73.4
Bahrain 1.3 409 19,700 High 107 8.0
Oman 3.6 298 25,150 High 924 25.4
Saudi Arabia 28.8 229 26,260 High 7,898 27.4
UAE 9.3 286 38,360 High 1,021 10.9
Kuwait 3.4 547 45,130 High 629 18.7
Qatar 2.2 299 86,790 High 330 15.2
Palestine
Somalia 10.5 6 Low 2,664 25.4
Syria
Comoros
Total 343,7 72,943
Weighted Avg. 134 7,778.24 21.2
Source: WHO (WHO, 2015b)
Note: Weighted averages based on population data

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Asian Region
OIC countries in the Asian region (including Albania in Europe and Suriname and Guyana in
South America) generally fall into the low to middle income countries. However, it is noticeable
that the mortality rates are on average the lowest in this OIC region; this despite vehicle
ownership levels similar to countries in the Arab region and much higher than in the African
region.

Table 15: Key statistics of OIC countries in the Asian region

Vehicle Mortality rate
Population Income Estimated
Country ownership pcGNI [US$] [deaths/100,000
[million] group road deaths
(v./1,000 p.) population]
Djibouti .9 1,030 Middle 216 24.7
Afghanistan 30.6 21 690 Low 4,734 15.5
Tajikistan 8.2 50 990 Low 1,543 18.8
Bangladesh 156.6 13 1,010 Low 21,316 13.6
Kyrgyz Republic 5.5 173 1,210 Middle 1,220 22.0
Pakistan 182.1 50 1,360 Middle 25,781 14.2
Uzbekistan 28.9 1,880 Middle 3,240 11.2
Indonesia 249.9 417 3,580 Middle 38,279 15.3
Maldives .3 178 5,600 Middle 12 3.5
Iran 77.4 347 5,780 Middle 24,896 32.2
Turkmenistan 5.2 162 6,880 Middle 914 17.4
Azerbaijan 9.4 121 7,350 Middle 943 10.0
Malaysia 29.7 802 10,430 Middle 7,129 24.0
Turkey 74.9 239 10,970 Middle 6,687 8.9
Kazakhstan 16.4 239 11,550 Middle 3,983 24.2
Brunei .
Europe and South America
Albania 3.2 141 4,710 Middle 478 15.1
Guyana .8 20 3,750 Middle 138 17.3
Suriname .5 384 9,370 Middle 103 19.1
Total 879,6 141,396
Weighted Avg. 226 3,710.88 16.1
Source: WHO (WHO, 2015b)
Note: Weighted averages based on population data

6.2 Methodology for Assessing Road Safety Performance

In order to make a road safety comparison between countries of the world, reliable data of the
number of killed or (seriously) injured are required. Furthermore, for a sound analysis of actual
safety levels, data of travel behaviour are needed. Additional information, such as information
describing political and social stability and the health situation in a country, can further help to
understand differences.

The WHO reports contains some of this data for most countries (World Health Organisation,
2015b). However, reported road death numbers are often estimated, and data relating to travel
behaviour (by travel mode), fleet size (by travel mode) or road length data (by type of road) are
not always available.

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Across the world, more than 200 countries differ widely in terms of population, population
density, geophysical nature, wealth, political stability etc. These factors all influence road safety
management and the ability to improve road safety. To account for some of these differences, a
common unit to measure road safety is risk, which relates to the number of deaths to distance
travelled, expressed in km. However, traffic data such as these are often not available and
therefore a more common unit for expressing road safety risk is mortality. This relates the
number of road deaths to population size, i.e. we use mortality rates, expressed as per million,
i.e. road deaths per million inhabitants.

It was recently shown that the value of a statistical life increases considerably with increasing
per capita Gross National Income (pcGNI) (Wijnen & Stipdonk, 2016). This suggests that high
income countries are willing to invest a higher proportion of Gross National Income (GNI) in a
safe traffic system than low or middle income countries. GNI may therefore be a simple variable
that may explain differences in mortality. Since GNI is related to population, it is expressed as
and average per capita GNI (or pcGNI) i.e. average GNI per inhabitant, expressed in US$.

In this report the 2013 road mortality and pcGNI for different OIC member countries and other
countries are analysed. The analysis is based on World Health Organisation data (World Health
Organisation, 2015). Although the WHO data is reasonably complete, there are four OIC member
countries for which no data were available. These are Brunei, Comoros, Palestine and the Syrian
Arabic Republic. These countries have been left out of the analysis. In addition to 53 OIC member
countries, 126 non-OIC countries have been included in the analysis.

The selected countries have been stratified into the three income levels defined by the WHO,
namely high income countries (pcGNI>12,745 US$), middle income countries
(1,046<pcGNI<12,745 US$) and low income countries (pcGNI<1,046 US$).

6.3 Results in Terms of Road Safety Performance

6.3.1 Mortality rates by income levels
As a first reference the mortality and income (as expressed by pcGNI) data for all countries for
which WHO had data available (126 non-Islamic countries and 57 Islamic countries) were
plotted (Figure 11). Mortalities range typically between approximately 40 per million to 400
fatalities per million inhabitants, which can easily be plotted with a straightforward linear scale.
However, pcGNI’s can differ more than two orders of magnitude: from less than 300 US$ to more
than 100,000 US$. The country with the highest pcGNI, Monaco, was left out of the analysis as
there were no fatalities reported in in Monaco in 2013 and also because it is a very small country.
Libya is not in this graph since it has an extremely high reported mortality rate of 783 fatalities
per million inhabitants.

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Figure 11: Mortality versus pcGNI for 180 countries

400

350

300
Mortality [road deathts per million]

250

200

150

100

50

0
100 1 000 10 000 100 000
pcGNI [US$/capita]

Source: WHO (2015)

Note: The line represents an unweighted best fit of a power function; its formula is mortality = 2259 (pcGNI) -0.327.
To make the results easier to observe, the horizontal axis is represented on a logarithmic scale.

The global relation between pcGNI and mortality as shown in Figure 11 suggests that high
income correlates with high road safety levels. This seems logical, since high income is generally
indicative of a well-developed public transport system, high car ownership (as opposed to
powered two wheeler use) and long term investments in safe infrastructure, such as safe
highways.

The fitted regression line drawn in Figure 11 merely serves to indicate a general trend in the
data. Individual values for each country were not weighted by population to estimate this line
and each data point in the graph weighs equally. The large spread above and below this line
shows that, although high income helps to achieve better road safety, countries with roughly the
same income levels can still differ in mortality by a factor of three or more. There could be
various explanations for these differences, the most obvious being differences in traffic volumes
and distances travelled by vehicles and/or passengers. Other examples of factors which could
explain these differences could be geological differences (i.e. flat countries versus mountainous
countries) or weather conditions (e.g. long wet seasons) or differences in road user behaviour.
A low mortality in low income countries may indicate a low level of motorisation. This could
imply that increased levels of motorisation (vehicle ownership) may lead to increased mortality.

Given the scope of this study, these factors cannot be investigated in detail. However, it is worth
mentioning one factor that could possibly explain differences in road safety rates (or, for that

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matter, health related factors in general), namely the GINI coefficient, which is defined (United
Nations Development Programme, 2015) as:

“Measure of the deviation of the distribution of income among individuals or households within a
country from a perfectly equal distribution. A value of 0 represents absolute equality, a value of
100 absolute inequality”.

The GINI coefficient is used to measure inequality in income distributions. In countries with high
GINI values the majority of the income is earned by a small proportion of the population whereas
in countries with low GINI indices the income earned is distributed more evenly across the
entire population.

6.3.2 Mortality rates by income levels, population and vehicle ownership in OIC member
countries
Assuming that the regression line from Figure 11 represents a meaningful average relationship
between mortality and income levels (pcGNI), Figure 12 shows the distribution of the data of
the OIC member countries around this average. In order to provide insight into population size
and vehicle ownership, the data points in the graph are represented by circles, the area of which
describes the size of population of each country and the colour shade the level of vehicle
ownership (darker representing higher ownership). It should be noted that vehicle ownership
is also based on WHO data and these include motorised two-wheelers.

Figure 12: Mortality versus pcGNI for OIC member countries

400
LBY

350

MOZ IRN
TGO
300
GMB BFA
mortality [road deaths per million]

GINUGASLEBEN SENCMR
GNB SAU
NER JOR
250 MLI OMN
DJI CIV
MRT SDN TUN DZA KAZ
TCD MYS
GAB
LBN
KGZ
YEM
MAR
NGA
200 IRQ
TJK SUR
GUY TKM KWT

150 AFG IDN ALB QAT

<10
BGD PAK
10-20 EGY
20-50 UZB ARE
100 50-100 AZE
TUR
100-200 BHR
200-500
50 >500
MDV
unknown

0
100 1000 10000 100000
pcGNI [US$/capita]

Source: WHO, 2015

Note: The line represents an unweighted best fit of a power function to the data as shown in Figure 5.1. To make
the results easier to observe, the horizontal axis is represented on a logarithmic scale.

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An interesting, and somewhat surprising result from this graph is the relatively high mortality
rate of five of the six high income (>12 756 US$) OIC member countries. The United Arabic
Emirates (ARE), Qatar (QAT), Kuwait (KWT), Oman (OMN) and Saudi Arabia (SAU) all have
mortality rates that are significantly higher than what would be expected in high income
countries internationally. Amongst the high income countries, only Bahrain (BHR) has a
mortality rate marginally below the expected norm. Turkey (TUR) just falls outside the
definition of high income countries but also has a lower mortality rate than expected. Since these
data do not take into account important factors, such as the degree of motorisation and amount
of travel, the results must be viewed with some caution. Although it is generally accepted that
most high income countries are highly developed with a high degree of motorisation, this is not
always the case. Countries such as Bahrain may be defined as high income, but are yet to
experience associated growth in motorisation and transport infrastructure development.

This analysis reveals that Saudi Arabia is a particularly interesting case with a mortality rate
about three times higher than the international norm. A possible explanation may be found in
the GINI index. A high GINI coefficient indicates an unevenly distributed income. The GINI
indexes are published by the World Bank (World Bank, 2013), but are unfortunately not
available for all countries and these include Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, United Arabic Emirates,
Kuwait and Oman. Qatar, which is also a high income country with a somewhat higher than
expected traffic mortality rate, has a GINI coefficient of 41.1%, which is not extraordinary high
but 1,5 times higher than developed countries, such as Norway and the Netherlands.

Amongst the middle income countries (between 1,046 US$ and 12,745 US$ per capita), Libya
(LBY) and Iran (IRN) have remarkably high road mortality rates. As mentioned earlier the data
for Libya reveal extremely high traffic mortality rates and should be treated with caution. In
Libya the traffic mortality rate is around seven times higher than what would normally be
expected from an average middle income country. The road mortality (743 per million) is more
than twice the value of the next high mortality country, which is Iran. In Iran, the mortality rate
is half of Libya’s and double that what is expected from a country with its pcGNI. The chance of
an average Iranian being killed in a traffic related incident is therefore significantly higher than
in most other middle income countries.

A third relevant group is the group of middle income countries and high population with a
relatively high mortality, i.e. Iran (IRN), Nigeria (NIG), Morocco (MAR), Algeria (DZA), Gabon
(GAB), Lebanon (LBN), Kazakhstan (KAZ), Malaysia (MYS), Turkmenistan (TKM), Iraq (IRQ),
Suriname (SUR), Tunisia (TUN) and Jordan (JOR). The mortality rate in these countries may well
be affected by factors, such as increased motorisation, urbanisation and demand for travel.

Most of the remaining middle income countries have a somewhat lower road mortality rate. In
these cases this could be explained by lower levels of motorisation. Increased affluence may
result in increased demand for travel and rising car ownership which could negatively impact
the mortality rates in countries such as Afghanistan (AFG), Bangladesh (BGD) and Pakistan
(PAK).

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A next group is formed by most of the remaining low income countries, that almost all have a
high road mortality. For these countries, road mortality is not notably higher than the average
for all countries. Notwithstanding this, their mortality is high and this may offer opportunities
to improve safety.

6.3.3 Fatality rates by vehicle population, income level and population in OIC member
countries
Figure 13 shows the relationship between road deaths as a function of the vehicle population to
income levels, vehicle ownership and population. The line in the graph represents the trend in
the average number of road deaths per 1,000 registered vehicles in 150 countries available in
the WHO report. The graph shows that, again, five out of six high income OIC member countries
have a moderately to highly enhanced risk as compared to this average, whereas most other
countries show a more or less equivalent number of road deaths per vehicle as compared to the
average.

From left to right the pcGNI increases, and from the colours used to represent fleet density
(vehicles per thousand inhabitants) we see that, not surprisingly, this fleet density also increases
with pcGNI. From this graph, the high mortality as shown in Figure 13 for Libya and Iran can be
understood from the high fleet density (shown as a darker colour green).

Countries to the upper left of the graph show a very high number of road fatalities per vehicle,
indicating a very poor road safety level in general. Especially countries appearing above the
average line can be expected to have extremely unsafe roads.

Figure 13: Road deaths per 1,000 registered vehicles for Islamic countries
100 GIN
BEN

TGO
SDN
SLE
NER MOZ
MLI
road deaths per thouand vehicles]

10 GMB BGD
SEN
UGA CIV GUY
GNB
AFG
NGA
TCD YEM
BFA TJK
PAK
MRT MAR GAB
EGY TUNJOR IRQ
KGZ DZA LBY SAU
1 ALB TKM KAZ
IRN AZE OMN
LBN
SUR QAT
IDN TUR ARE
KWT
MYS
<10 10-20 MDV BHR

0.1 20-50 50-100

100-200 200-500

>500 unknown

0.01
100 1000 10000 100000
pcGNI [US$/capita]

Note: The line represents the average for all countries with data available. It is a power law, with y = x-1.115.
Colours correspond to intervals of vehicles per 1000 inhabitants. The size of each circle is proportional to the
population of each country. For both axes, a logarithmic scale is used because of the large spread in values for both
pcGNI and road deaths per vehicle.

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The group of OIC member countries can be stratified into four groups that potentially could
require different approaches to improve road safety:
1. High Income countries (HICs) with a much higher road mortality than average for HICs in
general.
2. Middle Income countries (MICs) with a higher than average road mortality.
3. MICs with a lower than average road mortality.
4. Low Income countries (LICs) with a mortality that is high in an absolute sense.

Conclusions will be further elaborated in Chapter 12.

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7 Desk Research Results on Road Safety Management and Data

7.1 General Overview of Road Safety Development in OIC Member Countries

This section provides an overview of the development of the Safe Systems Approach in the OIC
member countries, grouped according to their regions. To this end a rating system has been
developed, providing insight in the way OIC member countries manage the five road safety
pillars and related road safety data. In order to be as objective as possible, the majority of ratings
are derived from scores presented in the WHO World Report (World Health Organisation, 2015).
The way the scoring system is designed is presented in Appendix 3.

In certain cases no data were available and these have not been rated (indicated by N/A). The
scores are based on best current insights and should be viewed as indicative rather than certain.
The WHO World Report is based on a limited number of criteria that do not reveal the full depth
of road safety management although they are the best currently available for an international
comparison. To establish insight in how far countries are adopting the Safe Systems principles
would require a full capacity review, covering the full spectrum of management functions,
interventions and results (based on the World Bank and WHO guidelines of Bliss and Breen, see
chapter 3 and 4). In most cases such capacity reviews have not been conducted or were not
available for this literature study. The WHO study provides a uniform and standardised set of
data with which an initial comparison could be done.

Table 16 to Table 18 provide insight into the scores per pillar and per OIC member country. The
scores are the result of a weighting applied to the different criteria, as described in the Global
Plan developed for the UN (United Nations, 2011). In addition, the component of road safety
data was added to the overall evaluation. This last element was added as a separate criterion
since the road safety management pillar only reflects this indirectly and road safety data is a
very important outcome indicator and paramount for effective road safety management.

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African Region
In the Africa region (Table 16), Burkina Faso, Gabon, Gambia and Togo are as yet to initiate steps
to adopt a Safe Systems Approach to road safety management. There are no OIC member
countries in the Africa region practising state of the art Safety Management practices and neither
are there any countries in this region that rate highly across all the pillars.

Table 16: Rating of OIC countries in the Africa region

Post- Road
WHO Safety Mngt Roads and Road
African Group Vehicles Crash Safety
data (Inst. Fmwk) Mobility Users
Care Data
Benin  4 4 2 1 2 2
Burkina Faso  4 1 1 1 2 1
Cameroon  4 2 N/A 1 3 1
Chad  4 3 N/A 1 2 1
Cote d'Ivoire  4 2 2 2 3 1
Gabon  2 1 N/A 2 2 1
Gambia  1 1 2 1 3 1
Guinea  3 2 2 1 2 1
Guinea-Bissau  2 2 2 1 4 1
Mali  4 3 2 2 3 2
Mozambique  3 1 2 3 2 1
Niger  3 2 2 1 3 2
Nigeria  4 5 2 3 2 1
Senegal  4 2 2 1 2 1
Sierra Leone  3 1 2 5 3 1
Togo  1 2 1 2 2 1
Uganda  2 4 N/A 1 3 2
Note: A weighting was applied to the WHO data to derive the above summary scores in each pillar. These are based
on the number of Yes/No responses per Pillar; the proportion of 2-wheeled vehicles in the population, the number
of traffic laws applied etc. as shown in Appendix 3. A score of 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

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Arab Region
In the Arab region (Table 17) Djibouti, Lebanon, Somalia and Yemen consistently score low
across all pillars and aspects. Kuwait, Oman and Qatar score high on the Pillar Road Safety
Management but lower on most other aspects. The United Arab Emirates appears to be the
closest to applying the principles of the Safe Systems Approach. However, even though these last
mentioned countries, which are graded as high income countries, appear to practice good safety
management, they still have mortality rates far exceeding that of other high income high
countries and even that of many medium and low income countries (See chapter 5). Given that
some of these countries have experienced moderate to high economic growth in the past 20
years, paired with growing vehicle ownership and resulting in significant investment in road
infrastructure, it is expected that road crashes will increase in the coming years unless these
countries invest in the other pillars supporting the Safe Systems philosophy. Similar trends to
this were witnessed in Europe where traffic fatalities peaked at about the same time major
investments were made in road infrastructure improvements and supporting road safety
policies.

Table 17: Rating of OIC countries in the Arab region

Post- Road
WHO Safety Mngt Roads and Road
Arab Group Vehicles Crash Safety
data (Inst. Fmwk) Mobility Users
Care Data
Algeria  4 3 2 4 2 1
Bahrain  3 3 2 3 2 4
Comoros N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Djibouti  1 1 2 2 1 1
Egypt  3 2 5 4 3 2
Iraq  2 3 N/A 1 3 3
Jordan  3 3 N/A 2 3 2
Kuwait  5 3 2 2 2 1
Lebanon  1 2 2 3 3 1
Libya  3 2 2 1 2 2
Mauritania  4 3 N/A 1 2 1
Morocco  4 5 2 4 2 2
Oman  5 5 2 4 3 4
Palestine N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Qatar  5 5 2 2 3 1
Saudi Arabia  4 4 N/A 1 3 3
Somalia  2 1 2 1 2 1
Sudan  3 2 2 2 2 1
Syria N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Tunisia  3 1 2 3 2 2
UAE  4 5 2 4 3 2
Yemen  1 3 2 1 3 1
Note: A weighting was applied to the WHO data to derive the above summary scores in each pillar. These are based
on the number of Yes/No responses per Pillar; the proportion of 2-wheeled vehicles in the population, the number
of traffic laws applied etc. as shown in Appendix 3. A score of 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

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Asian Region
In the Asian region (Table 18) Afghanistan, Maldives and Pakistan rank poorly with regards to
adopting measures supporting the pillars adopted by the Global Plan for the Decade of Action.
Indonesia, and to a lesser extent Malaysia, have instituted strong safety management initiatives
although they still score quite poorly in the other pillars. In the Asian group Kazakhstan appears
to be the most advanced in terms of meeting the criteria encompassing a Safe Systems Approach.

Table 18: Rating of OIC countries in the Asian region

Post- Road
WHO Safety Mngt Roads and Road
Asian Group Vehicles Crash Safety
data (Inst. Fmwk) Mobility Users
Care Data
Afghanistan  2 1 2 1 2 1
Albania  4 5 2 3 3 2
Azerbaijan  2 2 2 3 4 3
Bangladesh  3 3 1 1 1 2
Brunei N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Indonesia  5 5 1 2 2 2
Iran  3 4 2 4 4 2
Kazakhstan  5 4 2 5 4 4
Kyrgyz
 4 3 2 3 3 4
Republic
Malaysia  5 5 3 2 2 4
Maldives  1 1 1 1 3 4
Pakistan  1 2 1 2 2 1
Tajikistan  3 3 2 4 3 2
Turkey  4 4 5 3 3 2
Turkmenistan  4 5 2 5 1 3
Uzbekistan  3 2 N/A 4 3 1
Guyana  4 1 2 1 3 4
Suriname  2 4 2 5 2 2
Note: A weighting was applied to the WHO data to derive the above summary scores in each pillar. These are based
on the number of Yes/No responses per Pillar; the proportion of 2-wheeled vehicles in the population, the number
of traffic laws applied etc. as shown in Appendix 3. A score of 1 is poor and 5 is excellent.

Comments based on the scores

This analysis reveals that there are no OIC member countries that score high on all elements.
This is in itself not surprising because even countries such as Sweden and the Netherlands,
which have been applying the Safe Systems Approach, do not systematically score high across
all the elements (Bliss & Breen, 2009; Morsink et al., 2005). However, a bigger concern is the
countries which score low across all pillars and countries which score high on Safety
Management and low on most of the other aspects. The fact that these countries score high on
road safety management and low on other aspects could mean that the effect of state of the art
road safety management infrastructure and systems as yet has to manifest itself. However, it
could also mean that a lead agency has been put into place but that this agency has been unable
to systematically deal with problems in the other pillars. To gain insight into the effectiveness of
the road safety management one would need historical data to follow developments in the other
pillars. As has been suggested earlier, capacity reviews are a useful instrument to gain the

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required insight into road safety management and it is strongly advocated to undertake such
reviews in OIC member countries.

The fact that some OIC member countries score relatively high across all pillars but yet have
high crash rates could suggest that:
 The variables and criteria used by the WHO to describe the state of the art within the pillars
are not the most suitable criteria for these countries.
 Crashes in countries with seemingly well-developed pillars have not yet been affected by the
implemented improvements.
 The improvements describing the status of development in the pillars have no effect on
crashes.
 The criteria do not reveal the true status of pillar development.

7.2 Specific Illustrations of Road Safety Development in OIC Member

Countries
A literature search was carried out for documentation describing road safety studies and
evaluations in selected OIC member countries. The search was limited to documents focussing
on road safety studies and related to national road safety developments and trends. The search
focussed primarily on documentation in English language. Given the limited scope of this
literature study, this part of the study concentrated on two countries from each OIC region. For
each country an overview on road safety, based on the five pillars described in the UN’s Global
Plan, was prepared on the basis of available literature. Some findings are presented below,
providing examples of how road safety management aspects are addressed in selected OIC
member countries. Appendix 4 presents more elaborate results of the literature review.

African Region

Nigeria
Road safety management
 Established sixteen additional Federal Road Safety Corps Command Units;
 A five-year action program, The Nigeria Road Safety Strategy, is established;
 An important stakeholder organisation is the Arrive Alive Road Safety initiative;
 Numerous individual operators (e.g. organised transport, private companies) are a main
problem for law enforcement;
 Financial penalties are often inadequate deterrents.
Roads and Mobility
 Second longest network in Africa;
 Intense traffic pressure on the road network in Nigeria;
 Large metropolitan areas face new problems due to an increasing traffic demand and
congestion;
 Significant higher fatality rating in festive and seasonal periods;
 The road network is prone to natural environmental factors;
 No appropriate budget for road construction and maintenance.

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Vehicles
 Non-standard and unsafe vehicles still in use;
 No applied vehicle standards;
 Fatal accidents involving minibuses are most prevalent on highways;
 Poor vehicle maintenance
 Most of the crashes involving cars were reported in metropolitan areas;
 Free safety checks for all vehicles on the highway;
 Introduction of speed limiters on commercial vehicles;
 Standardisation of school bus designs.
Road Users
 Poor driving culture;
 Drink-driving with lack of experience often results in fatal accidents;
 Human error major factor in traffic crashes;
 Nigeria launched intensive road safety campaigns.
Post-crash Response
 Multiple emergency telephone numbers;
 No injury surveillance systems;
 26 new transport ambulances were introduced in 2015;
 The Federal Road Safety Corps established emergency ambulance points along major
corridors.
Road Safety Data
 The FRSC is collaborating with the Federal Ministry of Health for the collection of injury data;
 The FRSC is introducing the new template for the collection of road traffic crash data.

Cameroon
Road safety management
 Large percentage has not received any formal driver training;
 Enforcement of laws is poor due to the numerous individual operators and ambiguous laws;
 Lack of transparency in the administration of penalties;
 Financial penalties are often inadequate deterrents.
Roads and Mobility
 Most of the maintenance activities are poorly planned and ineffective in optimizing the life
cycle of road assets;
 Traffic volumes generally low when compared to other middle income countries;
 Around 36 per cent of the unpaved road network carries more than 300 vehicles per day;
 The poor road condition prohibits the easy movement of goods;
 Pedestrians and livestock share the same roads as the motorised vehicles;
 Lack of road signs and road lightning result in dangerous situations at night;
 The untarred roads are prone to potholes and excessive dust.
Vehicles
 No roadworthiness inspections;
 Non-standard and unsafe vehicles are common;
 Trucks are prone to roll-over crashes due to overloading and over speeding.

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Road Users
 Males are at an increased risk of road traffic accidents compared to females;
 Drinking and driving is a major problem after dark;
 Human error is a major factor for traffic crashes;
 Evident need for public awareness of traffic and safe driving;
 Launching of intense road safety campaigns and driving school standardisation programs are
launched.

Post-crash Response
 Cameroon has multiple emergency telephone numbers;
 No emergency room injury surveillance systems;
 Reports of road crashes channelled through informal and unstructured media;
 The data of an accident is collected by the FRSC, filling in a notebook entry or the paper
accident report.

Road Safety Data

 The working age group (15-45 years) is involved in more crashes with motorised vehicles
than other age groups;
 Pedestrians account for 34% of the total amount of road users.

Arab Region

Oman
Road safety management
 A Research Council was created as part of the road safety strategy;
 The road safety research program is a collaborative effort between the Research Council and
the Royal Oman Police;
 A steering committee has been formed to ensure that research is of high scientific quality and
that the research proposals determine the research priority areas;
 The national seat-belt laws have recently been revised to be applicable to both drivers and
passengers of 4-wheeled motorised vehicles;
 New national child restraint law and mobile phone law while driving applied.
Roads and mobility
 Travel between cities, especially at night, may be dangerous because of poor lightning,
wandering livestock, pedestrians crossing highways, slow moving cargo vehicles and
speeding drivers;
 The high number of crashes between July and September can be caused by the tourist season
and monsoons;
 Most of the accidents happen during the day between 9.00 and 20.00 on urban roads.
Vehicles
 Periodic vehicle maintenance is mandatory in Oman and vehicles must meet local standards;
 The high increase of the automobile fleet can be caused by the unavailability of a good railway
network, water-ways or bus services;

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 Private cars are involved in 77% of all road crashes;

 Motorised 4-wheeled vehicles account for 84% of the total vehicle fleet.
Road Users
 No proper education and awareness campaigns regarding traffic risks and traffic awareness;
 Young drivers are over-represented in crashes in Oman;
 Speeding is a major contributing factor to fatal crashes in Oman.
Post-crash Response
 Oman has an emergency telephone number;
 Emergency room injury surveillance systems with qualified personnel are available.
Road Safety Data
 The Royal Oman Police is the sole authority responsible for recording, analysing and
publishing road safety data;
 A lot of minor accident cases are settled by the parties mutually at the scene;
 In 2013 the Research Council completed the road accident database.

Morocco
Road safety management
 The Ministry of Equipment and Transport and Logistics has the overall responsibility for
road transport;
 The Road and Road Traffic department is responsible for road networking planning and for
the design construction and maintenance of road infrastructure;
 The Department of Road Transportation Safety is mainly in charge of road transportation
safety in general and for the safety of vehicles and drivers;
 The Department of Studies, Planning and Coordination is mainly responsible for the planning
and development of the road transport sector, and for the coordination between various
modes of transport in the country;
 Morocco lacks the presence of a dedicated road safety research programme carried out by a
dedicated research staff and backed by sustainable funding sources.
Roads and Mobility
 Road conditions vary by season and are prone to heavy rainfall and pot holes;
 The DTRSR recently applied safety measures to improve road safety. They improved the
infrastructure through identification and elimination of blackspots.
Vehicles
 There are still non-standard vehicles in use in Morocco;
 Many cars and trucks are poorly maintained and especially trucks are often overloaded;
 Commercial vehicles require an annual inspection and buses are inspected every six months;
 Older cars (older than 12 years) are more often involved in crashes than newer cars.
Road Users
 More than half of the fatalities are represented by vulnerable road users such as pedestrians,
cyclists and motorcyclists;
 People between the age of 25 and 64 over-represent the number of road fatalities;
 In Morocco it is forbidden to drive under the influence of (illicit) drugs. However, this
measure is not yet enforced;

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 In 2013, alcohol use was cited as a contributing factor in 2.3% of all road crashes;
 National drink-driving laws have been developed and adopted.
Post-crash Response
 No emergency room injury surveillance systems;
 Recently the ambulance fleet of Morocco was modernised and improved;
 Emergency medical rescue system and the mobile medical emergency services are
established in regional hospital centres.
Road Safety Data
 Crash data are collected at the scene of the crash by the police;
 The data is entered into a database;
 The police can stay in contact with the hospitals to complete or adjust the reports of the
accident.

Asian Region

Indonesia
Road safety management
 The road safety partnership is focused on strengthening coordination and management of
road safety;
 The Indonesian National Police has an independent agency called the Indonesian National
Traffic Police Corps. This police corps is tasked with addressing and enforcing road safety in
Indonesia;
 The establishment of Law22/2009 has been an important step. This law is generally for the
Indonesian National Traffic Police Corps (INTPC). Under the law, the INTPC is charged with
the responsibility for road traffic and transport safety;
 Furthermore, the inclusion of the Provincial and Regency/City Governments in the law, is an
important step, ensuring that all levels of the government take an active role in road safety;
 Bringing leaders in Indonesian society, such as religious leaders, into the campaign on road
safety can be a very efficient way of creating road safety awareness.
Roads and Mobility
 Indonesia experiences extremely wet days and there can be a lot of dense fog. These factors
directly affect the road users and the (unpaved) roads;
 Two of the most critical failings at roadwork sites in Indonesia is the failure to use any
advance (road works) warning signs to warn approaching drivers of the workers ahead, and
a lack of adequate demarcation signs and markings to protect road workers at the work zone;
 Road conditions in Indonesia are far from ideal.
Vehicles
 Indonesia has a large population of 2- and 3-wheel vehicles. About 83% of all registered
vehicles in 2013 were motorised 2- and 3-wheelers;
 Over involvement of buses and trucks are the main factors of accidents with buses and trucks;
 The main reasons that there are a lot of non-standard and unsafe vehicles in use is that there
are no applied vehicle standards;

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 Vehicles with faulty brakes are a common cause for traffic crashes marked with “severe
injury”.
 Every vehicle is supposed to have a proper certification, given by the local transportation
agency, before going on the road.
Road Users
 The majority of traffic fatalities are registered among bus drivers and passengers (35%),
riders of motorised 2- or 3-wheelers (36%) and pedestrians (21%);
 Young people (10-24 yr.) and people of productive ages (25-50 yr.) account for a large
proportion of accidents.
Post-crash Response
 Indonesia does have multiple emergency telephone numbers and a few basic emergency care
centres at hospitals;
 The hospitals are only located in urban areas;
 The lowest level of emergency care is found in the rural areas, where most facilities are
community-based and provide only service for primary health care.
Road Safety Data
 Indonesia has a new data system named the IRSMS Accident Information System;
 IRSMS is designed to provide valid, reliable and verified data for road accidents in Indonesia;
 At present, data is collected by police filling in a notebook entry or a paper accident report
form at the accident site.

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8 Survey Results on Road Safety Management and Data

8.1 Approach of the Surveys

A two-stage survey was conducted to gather input from stakeholders involved in road safety
management in the OIC member countries, serving as an input for the analysis in the synthesis
phase, and to validate the findings of the literature review. The results are analysed and
presented on the basis of the five road safety pillars used by the World Health Organisation.

The Stage 1 survey targeted the COMCEC focal points of the OIC member countries. The feedback
from this survey, in combination with additional contact persons from the research team itself,
facilitated the identification and selection of a core group of 10-12 OIC-Member Countries that
have the highest potential for providing more detailed information through a detailed
questionnaire (Stage 2). The Stage 1 survey was filled out by nine out of the 34 member
countries that have registered to the COMCEC Transport and Communications Working Group2
as presented in Table 19.

Table 19: Response to stage 1 survey

Group Number of Respondents Countries:
High income 1 Qatar
Middle income 5 Iran, Jordan, Palestine, Senegal, Morocco
Low income 3 Gambia, Guinea (partial response), Uganda
Total 9 respondents 9 countries
Source: Stage 1 survey, Ecorys

The Stage 2 survey has a more topical focus, concentrating on policy aspects. The Stage 2 survey
was filled out by 16 respondents from 10 different countries, as presented in presented in Table
20.

Table 20: Response to stage 2 survey

Group Number of Respondents Countries
High income 1 Qatar
Middle income 1 Jordan
1 Tunisia
3 Indonesia
3 Iran
2 Nigeria
1 Senegal
Low income 1 Bangladesh
2 Gambia
1 Uganda
Total 16 respondents 10 countries
Source: Stage 2 survey, Ecorys

2 Contact points in the field of transportation in the remaining 22 OIC Member Countries are not available
and it has been decided to distribute the survey to the 34 available contact points.

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Based on the literature review, the results of the survey are categorised into high/middle income
countries and low income countries, which allows for validation of the findings of the literature
review. Due to the limited number of high income countries in the survey, high and middle
income countries are combined in this section.

It should be noted that not all respondents completed the entire questionnaires; eight
respondents fully completed the Stage 1 survey questionnaire and 11 respondents fully
completed the Stage 2 survey questionnaire. Some of the questions in the Stage 2 survey were
not mandatory. It should also be noted that some countries are represented by more than one
respondent in the Stage 2 survey. The section below summarises the main findings of the
surveys.

8.2 Survey Results

Road safety is considered to be a high priority issue in all of the countries that participated in
the survey.

Road Safety Management

Most of the countries have a national strategy. Most respondents indicated that if a country had
a road safety lead agency, the responsibilities of the agency were limited to road safety policy
development and implementation and legislation. Road safety funding was not a core function
of the lead agency. Not all lead agencies in the low income countries have a specific and
dedicated budget allocated for road safety and most of the lead agencies are considered to have
insufficient resources means to perform their tasks.

High and medium income countries mostly coordinate responsibilities on road safety policy
between the different government agencies and departments, while low income countries
mostly coordinate responsibilities on education & training and vehicle legislation & standards.
Road safety in the high and middle income countries is generally well-coordinated, while it is
less well-coordinated in the low income countries.

The participating low income countries reported not to have performance targets, while most
of the high and middle income countries reported to have such targets. Based on the survey
results, R&D tasks are similar in high, middle and low income countries. High and middle income
countries have more road safety instruments and tools to ensure higher road safety, such as
road safety audits and inspections. Expansion of the road network and improving maintenance
have a high priority in all of the countries.

Roads and mobility

Road design standards for national roads are considered to be of good quality in high, middle
and low income OIC member countries. For regional roads, standards are generally better in
high and middle income countries than in low income countries. Local road design standards
are considered to be average to good in high and middle income countries, while mostly
considered to be poor in low income countries.

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Vehicles
In general, low income countries in the OIC region have lower vehicle standards and less
compulsory inspections. In high and middle income countries roadworthiness inspections are
common and some high and middle income countries require vehicles to be equipped with
airbags, while this is not the case in the low income countries.

Road users
Helmets are compulsory in most of the OIC member countries that responded to the surveys.
Also theoretical and practical driving tests are compulsory. In some of the OIC member countries
it is not compulsory for motorcycle drivers to wear protective clothing. Child restraints are also
often not compulsory.

Post-crash response
Most of the responding OIC member countries have a national response telephone number for
reporting crashes. However, only a few countries have procedures for crashes involving vehicles
carrying hazardous materials.

In general, the low income countries have less post-crash procedures than the high and middle
income countries.

Road safety data

The low income OIC countries have clearly less data available, especially on the number of
victims hospitalised and road geometry.

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Section 3: CASE STUDIES

9 Case Study: Bangladesh

9.1 Introduction
Bangladesh has been selected as one of the case studies. Road transportation is the major mode
of transport in Bangladesh. Over 70 % of passenger travel and much of general goods movement
occur on roads and highways (Mazharul Hogue et al., Road Safety in Bangladesh and Some
Recent Advances). Road transportation is vitally important to the economic and social welfare,
however, each year thousands of people are killed and injured on roads in Bangladesh. These
losses of lives and injuries affect Bangladesh socially and economically (Abdul Hamid, Road
Safety Situation in Bangladesh). Consequently, the challenge Bangladesh is facing, like many
other countries in the world, is maintaining the role of transportation in general, and the road
sector specifically, as a catalyst for socio-economic development, while improving road safety
by minimizing accident hazards and risks and consequently reducing people killed and injured
on roads.

Bangladesh, a country having an area of 147,570 km2 and a population of around 156 million,
has about two million motorized and could be over three million non-motorized vehicles
(Mazharul Hogue)). Of the motorized vehicles about 67% are 2 and 3 wheeler vehicles and the
rest are vehicles of different categories, such as cars, jeeps, buses, truck, pick-ups, etc. Among
the 2 and 3 wheeler vehicle around 85 % are motorcycle, as indicated in Table 21. The number
of vehicles is steadily increasing along with the increase of road mileage (World Health
Organisation, 2014; 2015).

Good quality roads have been constructed in recent years, adding speed to transportation and
frequency of movement of people. Simultaneously, the number of road accidents has also soared
highly. It is feared that with the continued expansion of the road network and the growth of
traffic, this adverse trend is to continue in the future, unless effective remedial measures are
taken with co-ordination of all concerned agencies through national action plans (National Road
Safety Council, 2013).

9.2 Road Safety Performance

Police reported road accidents in Bangladesh claim, on an average, about 2,800 lives and injure
another 5,200 each year (Accident Research Institute, 2014). It should be noted that the sources
of these figures are police reports, which are based on the definition of “died at scene of crash”.
WHO in its annual Global Status Reports on Road Safety (2015), included annual estimated road
traffic fatalities of over 20,000 and a mortality rate, defined as rate of road safety casualties per
100,000 population, of 13.6.

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Some accident statistics are presented below, indicating the size and the character of the road
safety problem in Bangladesh (Mazharul Hogue et al., Road Safety in Bangladesh and Some
Recent Advances):

 Pedestrians are the most affected group and are involved in more than 47% of road accidents
and 49% of all casualties. In urban areas pedestrians accounted for 62% of fatalities and in
Dhaka city this is nearly 75% (Sohel Mahmud, 2014).
 Around 73% of people killed in police reported accidents are male. People in the age group
of 15-44 years account for more than half of the road accidents casualties. One-third of the
victims are adult males of age between 21-40 years. Children (under 16 years) are heavily
involved in road accidents at an estimated rate of 22% of all road accident fatalities.
 According to the Accident Research Institute (ARI) about 43 % of reported accidents occur
on National Highways with a number of serious black spots (30% of accidents take place on
4% of the highway network). Accidents on national highways are more severe – about 48%
of accidents on national highways is fatal versus 14% on city roads (Mazharul Hogue et al.,
Road Safety in Bangladesh and Some Recent Advances).
 Trucks and buses are highly represented in accidents: heavy vehicles are especially strongly
involved in accidents with pedestrians, accounting for 79% of all accident with pedestrians
(37% trucks; 20% buses and 22% minibuses).
 According to ARI, In national highways, the following four accident types account for close to
84% of the total accidents:
- Hit pedestrian (42%).
- Head on collision (20%).
- Rear end collision (13%).
- Overturning (9.0%).
 According to ARI, the following two accident types are very common in city road,:
- Hit pedestrian (49%).
- Rear end collision (24%).
 Accident data for other road types like village road or upzilla road are not being monitored
accurately due to poor vigilance of police and lack of awareness of local dwellers. Besides,
the administrative procedures of a police case also motivate them to avoid the case. Which is
why it is hard to get characteristics analysis of those roads?
 The economic impact of road crashes in Bangladesh is high and is estimated at 1.6% of GDP,
based on the WHO 2015 Global Status Report. The fact that (young) adult men, as indicated
above, are relatively often involved in road accidents, contributes to the socio-economic
impact, as this group is often generating income, providing for their families.

9.2.1 Causes of road accidents

Causes of road accidents are different for national highways and for the city areas. In national
highways hit pedestrian and head on collision are the most dominant types of police reported
accidents. The root causes that are responsible for this can be divided into three main factors,
i.e. road, vehicle and user, as illustrated in more detail below.

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Road related causes that are responsible for road accidents are:
 National highways lack standards in design. For example, except some new segments of road,
all national highways are two-way highways without medians or some form of separation
between the driving directions. For this reason head on crash took place frequently.
 Frequent connections between national highways and regional roads deteriorate the safety
situation in Bangladesh. For example, until now Bangladesh does not have any access control
highway and national highways have been connected by low speed roads, such as regional
and even village road. Vehicles from those roads enter into the national road without any
resistance and create sudden situations for through traffic and leads to accidents.
 Inadequate shoulders (hard and soft) are another reason for accidents since pedestrian and
non-motorised vehicles (NMV) have to share the main carriageway, resulting in pedestrian
or rear end crashes.
 Heterogeneous traffic characteristics are also responsible for road accidents. NMVs, such as
rickshaws, bicycles and vans, use the highways together with high speed vehicles, such as,
buses, trucks and passenger cars. In addition, accidents were also triggered by some locally
made vehicles, such as nosimon and korimon (see section on safety vehicles). The speed gaps
between vehicles are the main cause of excessive overtaking; a prime cause of head on and
pedestrian accidents.
 No service road for local user and short distance traffic. For this reason, local users have to
use the main carriageway or national highway since they do not have any options. This
situation creates conflicts.
 Vision obstruction in curve, intersection and level crossing due to plantation and temporary
or permanent construction like shops and so on. This is one of the main reasons for head on
and level crossing crash in national highways.
 Road side market and shopping activities are a key reason for pedestrian crashes, which is
very common in Bangladesh.
 Lack of appropriate road signs and markings is another reason of road accidents in
Bangladesh. During the construction period of a national highway, road signs and markings
are placed, but problems arise after a few months. Road signs are often covered by roadside
trees, leaves or tree branches, especially in the rural context. In addition, traffic signs on
village road often get stolen because sign poles and plates have an economic value. During
the maintenance period, an overlay of bitumen is placed on the carriageway, covering the
road markings. This is not always restored properly.
 Sharp curves and narrow bridges without proper transition and tapering is also a crash
prone area in Bangladesh especially on regional roads. Due to insufficient budget or policy
decision, authorities are unable to provide curve widening or extra width of the bridges. This
results in dangerous situations, notably vehicles overturning, hitting object and pedestrians.
 Lack of footpath and unauthorised use of footpath is a common reason for pedestrian
accident in urban context. This situation pushes a pedestrian to the road, resulting in
accidents.
 Unauthorised parking and loading, unloading activities are other management related causes
of road accidents. In city areas, especially in shopping mall and recreational zones, parking
facilities are absent. For this reason, vehicles are parked on the main carriageway,

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obstructing the through traffic. Moreover, in other roads like national and regional roads,
designated places for loading and unloading, such as bus bays, are absent. This scenario is
very common and creates unsafe situations.

Vehicle related causes for road accidents:

 Many unfit vehicles with poor tyres, poor brakes, broken windscreens and missing or
malfunctioning indicators are used on national highways, causing vehicle roll-over
(overturning), head-on and pedestrian accidents.
 Vehicle modification is another cause of road accidents in Bangladesh. Buses and trucks have
been modified beyond the design standard. Trucks are modified by extending the sides and
load-bed with bars, angle iron and sheet metal so as to carry extra goods. When the extended
portion hits other vehicle it can damage and penetrate the other vehicle. Buses are usually
modified by adding extra seats to carry more passengers. As a result, it reduces leg room and
makes the situation compact, increasing casualties after accidents.
 There are many locally made vehicles (three-wheeler) with unauthorised configurations,
which are causing accidents in national, regional and other roads. These vehicles do not have
a proper brake system, power system, indicator system or lighting system, but carry around
10 to 12 people on a single unit. These types of vehicles are not able to stop quickly or indicate
their trajectory and cause various types of crashes.
 Lighting system or retro reflective stickers are absent on many bicycles whereby cyclists are
notoriously difficult to see on dark, unlit roads.

User related causes for road accidents:

 Drivers are not well educated. In most cases, drivers know the practical things of driving, but
do not know associated theoretical issues, such as defence driving, meaning of sign –
marking, understanding the hazard and required reaction.
 No specific driving time requirements and timetables/duty rosters for professional drivers,
such as truck, bus or taxi drivers. As a result, sometimes a driver has to drive around 20 hours
a day which creates fatigue and decrease awareness. In the driving license delivery system,
a screening process for safe driver is absent. Only some practical issues are checked, but the
scope for cognitive impairment measurement and perception towards road safety of drivers
is limited.
 Pedestrians are unaware of the safe rules of road crossing and try to cross the road at
locations without pedestrian crossings.
 Pedestrians are very reluctant to use footbridges. Pedestrians cross the road at grade to
maintain the shortest travel distance between origin and destination. This creates conflicts
between vehicles and pedestrians.
 The use of motorcycle helmets is still unpopular in Bangladesh, especially by youngsters.

According to ARI3 these are key contributing factors in road crashes. These factors lead to
excessive speeding, overloading, dangerous overtaking, reckless driving, carelessness of road
users, failure to obey mandatory traffic rules and regulations, variety of vehicle characteristics

3 As reported by Shifun Newaz of Accident Research Institute (ARI).

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and defects in vehicles and conflicting use of roads. Furthermore, road quality factors are
important. Other issues of concern are: under-reporting of road crashes; defective and non-
roadworthy motor vehicles; incompetent drivers; road engineering and environmental
deficiencies; inadequate in police inspection and law enforcement; poor road user behaviour
and safety education and institutional weakness.

Based on the above, it can be concluded that Bangladesh is faced with a number of severe
underlying problems which contribute to the poor road safety situation. The problems, as well
as possible solutions, are addressed in the next sections of this report on the road safety pillars.

9.3 Road Safety Management

National Road Safety Strategy
The National Land Transport Policy (NLTP) was adopted in 2004 by the Planning Commission
of Bangladesh, which sets a vision for “providing safer roads” and outlines policies such as road
safety auditing at all phases of road project development, construction and maintenance. The
policy also includes adopting speed restrictions on roads and safety improvement of existing
roads (National Road Safety Council, 2013).This document provides the policy basis for road
safety in Bangladesh, for example in the annual National Road Safety Strategic Action Plans,
including a long-term vision and short term target, and practical road safety manuals and
guidelines, as presented below.

National Road Safety Strategic Action Plans

Each year National Road Safety Strategic Action Plans (RSAPs), covering a three-year period, are
prepared in Bangladesh. The first RSAP covered the period 1997-1999. Bangladesh Is now
addressing the seventh RSAP, covering the period 2014-2016 and preparing the RSAP for 2017-
2019. The RSAPs contain a number of sections, with objectives, as well as further detailed sub-
sectors, with actors involved, actions and timing. As an illustration, the most recent RSAP
includes the following sections: (i) planning, management and co-ordination of road safety; (ii)
road traffic safety accident data system; (iii) road safety engineering; (iv) road and traffic
legislation; (v) traffic enforcement; (vi) driver training and testing; (vii) vehicle safety; (viii)
road safety education and publicity; and (ix) medical services for road traffic accident victims4.

The RSAP also includes the vision for road safety and the goal for road safety for the specific RSAP.
For the 2014-2016 RSAP this following vision and goal were defined:
 The vision is to reduce the number of road accident fatalities by 50% and to reduce the
number of road accidents by 30% in the coming decade.
 The goal for the period 2014-2016 is to reduce the road accident fatalities by 12-20%
annually.

4 These nine sectors are similar to the sectors defined in the ADB funded ESCAP road safety guidelines.

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The RSAPs provide a clear set of actions, linked to sub-sectors, providing a broad overview of
relevant road safety aspects. Having said so, some critical remarks on the RSAPs have been made
(M. Sohel Mahmud et al):

 The action plan is just the compilation of some activities of different organisations on road
safety or related issues. This plan is not prepared on the basis of priority needs to achieve a
certain goal.
 There is no monitoring mechanism nor has an organisation been assigned the task of
monitoring and evaluation.
 The RSAPs have no indication of the budgetary requirements and way of funding support.
 Though the RSAPs are prepared for a certain year, there is no timeframe to complete the
tasks and report the results. Some tasks are repeated in different sections of the RSAP.

In conclusion, the RSAP provides a basis for structuring actions across different sectors to
contribute to road safety in an integrated manner. In practice, there is room for improvement to
make the RSAPs more effective, i.e. by better coordinating actions and linking them to SMART
objectives; by monitoring and evaluating progress and results; by placing actions in a clearer
timeframe, where possible with priorities; and by linking funding requirements to the actions.

Road safety manuals and guidelines

Road safety manuals and guidelines are prepared at various levels:
 The Roads and Highways Department (RHD) has prepared a number of manuals, including
the Guidelines for Road Safety Audit, Road Safety Improvement Works Manual, Road Safety
Users Guide, Road Geometric Design Manual, Police Training Handbook, Road Safety
Engineering Toolkit, Pavement Design Guide, Guidelines for Identification of Sites for Road
Safety Improvement Works, A Guide to Safer Road Design.
 The Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA) has developed a Traffic Sign Manual.
 When visiting the Accident Research Institute (ARI) a recent Rural Road Safety Manual
(RRSM) was shown, including actions towards addressing hazardous situations and black
spots in rural roads, as well as options for solutions and implementation techniques. A
training manual for engineer titled “Road Safety Training Manual (RSTM) has also been
prepared by ARI, BUET. The manual that was reviewed by the contractor seemed to be of a
very practical nature, with ample of illustrations.

According to ARI, there have been issues related to manuals that are based on international
standards (prepared by international consultants).These manuals cannot be fully applied to the
local situation.

Road safety-related laws and regulations

According to the Global Status Report on Road Safety, there is a national speed limit law, national
drink-driving law and national motorcycle helmet law in force in Bangladesh. According to ARI,,
enforcement of these laws is poor. Current legislation does not adequately provide for
improving the wearing of seat belts and using child restraints. The national seat-belt and child

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restraint laws have not yet been implemented even though some 28% of the total reported
fatalities are passengers in 4-wheeled cars and light vehicles. It has become a priority to redress
this situation and to introduce and enforce a seat belt and child restraints law. This must be
supported by public road safety awareness to decrease road fatalities in Bangladesh. No national
law is in place yet regarding the use of a mobile phone whilst driving.

During interviews it was mentioned that a Road Safety Act was under development. This process
is at its early stages, with the drafting process just started. The initiative is at BRTA and emphasis
will be (amongst others) at vehicle registration, driving licenses and physical tests.

Institutional setting and Lead Agency

A number of organisations are active in improving road safety in Bangladesh. These include the
National Road Safety Council (NRSC), District Road Safety Committees (DRSCs), the Accident
Research Institute (ARI), the Bangladesh Road Transport Authority (BRTA), the Road and
Highway Department (RHD),the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED), the
Bangladesh Police, including Highway Police, the Road Transport and Highway Division (RTHD),
the Ministry of Home Affairs (MOHA), the Ministry of Health (MOH), the Ministry of Information
(MOI), the Bureau of non-Formal Education (BNFE) and NGOs, such as Bangladesh Rural
Advancement Committee (BRAC), Nirapad Sarak Chai, Work for Better Bangladesh (WBB), Safe
Community Foundation, Poribesh Bachao Andolon.5 The roles of some of these organisations
are presented in more detail below (Sohel Mahmud, 2013).

National Road Safety Council

The National Road Safety Council (NRSC) was established in 1995 under the Ministry of
Communications, initially with the support of WB funded road improvement project of RHD;
now a unit of BRTA. An independent organization called Road Safety Cell (RSC) was setup and
acts as secretariat to the NRSC at BRTA. The NRSC Secretariat carries out preparation of plans,
coordination, monitoring and evaluation of planned activities assigned to different agencies and
implementation of some programme assigned to it. The Secretariat severely lacks man-power,
logistics and facilities; hence is yet to become fully functional.

The NRSC comprises of representations from all key agencies including transport owners,
workers associations, professionals in the field, the transport regulator, law enforcers and road
authorities. The NRSC acts as a body for approving and driving forward the national road safety
policy and plans. The NRSC also formulates the National Road Safety Action Plan. Besides, the
NRSC is responsible for holding periodic meetings to provide policy level guiding decisions and
directives to road safety related stake holder organisations, as mentioned above. As mentioned
earlier, meetings of the NRSC are not regular or structural in nature.

District Road Safety Committee

District Road Safety Committees (DRSCs) at the district and metropolitan levels were formed in
1995 to implement programmes and policies of the NRSC and undertake local road safety

5 Based on organisations listed in the National Road Safety Strategic Action Plan, 2014-2016.

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programmes according to local needs. There is an Executive Committee headed by the chairman
of BRTA to co-ordinate NGOs on road safety issues. Initially significant impact was made by the
DRSCs, particularly in the awareness development at local level (Sohel Mahmud, 2013). Due to
lack of co-ordination, integration between local and central committees and internal
communication among the members of the committees, as well as shortage of resources, DRSCs
have lost some of their impact. Recently, initiatives have been undertaken to make DRSCs active
and functional again.

Accident Research Institute

An independent Accident Research Centre (ARC) was established at Bangladesh University of
Engineering and Technology (BUET) in 2002 to carry out scientific research for clear
understanding of the road safety problems and ascertaining the underlying causative factors,
which contribute to accidents on roads, railways and waterways. In 2007 ARC was renamed the
Accident Research Institute (ARI), under the Ministry of Education at BUET.

ARI is carrying out activities in road safety research, education, investigation (data analysis,
black spot analysis, investigation of major accidents, etc.) and training and awareness
programmes (organisation of events, platform for sharing best practices, development of
networks, etc.). ARI is expected to play major role in developing pragmatic, cost-effective
scientific solutions and bring about significant improvements in the capability of the
professionals and workers in the field of transportation to a meaningful level of expertise for
accident prevention and injury control and thereby contributing to the safer road environment
for all users and operators. For drivers and driving instructors ARI has prepared a “Safe Driving
Manual” which is written in the native language (Bengali) so that users can easily understand it.
In addition, two manuals for rural road safety, namely “Rural Road Safety Manual (RRSM) and
“Road Safety Training Manual (RSTM)” have also been prepared by ARI as part of a World Bank
funded project. ARI has conducted many training courses for engineers, police and other
professionals on road safety. Moreover, a considerable number of scientific accident
investigations have been carried out by ARI.

ARI is now conducting a study on a program titled “Strategic Accident Reduction Programme
(SARP)” to select data dictated facts and required safety measures for accident mitigation which
is now in very final stage and will be published soon. ARI has one director and seven staff
members, which makes ARI understaffed for the large task they are facing. Besides, ARI is now
badly in need for some research tools like a driving simulator and crash reconstruction software.
Within these capacity limitations, ARI is providing important services towards improving road
safety in Bangladesh.

Road Safety units at Road and Highway Department (RHD) and Local Government Engineering
Department (LGED)
In January 1999 RHD established a Road Safety Division to deal with the safety aspects of
national, regional and feeder roads. There is a severe lack in man-power, vehicles and facilities
at the Road Safety Division. LGED has created a Road Safety Cell.

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Highway Police
The Highway Police was created in 2005 to maintain and ensure discipline, enforce traffic rules
and regulations, improve traffic management, prevent highway crime, collect and disseminate
intelligence and police patrolling as well as ensure safety on state highways. In 2009 the
Highway Police Regulation came into effect in line with SRO-252, Law/2009. The Highway Police
operational area is divided in four regions, i.e. Comilla; Gazipur; Bogra and Madaripur, in total
including 7 city corporations and 97 municipalities. Each region is subdivided into different
zones.

The present Highway Police force (March 2016) comprises 2,215 staff members, employed at
the Head Quarters, the four highway regional offices, 10 ASP Circle Offices, 35 Police Stations
and 37 outposts. The vehicle park consists of 8 Jeeps, 13 cars, 86 pick-ups, 2 microbuses, 2
ambulances and 177 motorcycles. Given the size of the network and the number of staff, the
vehicle park is limited. The Highway Police is active in road safety awareness programmes,
amongst others through community policing. Leaflets are produced and meetings are organised
to support this process.

The Highway Police indicates a number of limitations, including insufficient number of police
stations and out posts; insufficient human resources; insufficient logistics support and large
distance between units. The Highway Police face acute mobility problems due to unavailability
of vehicles and other transport facilities including fuel cost, as well as shortage of qualified and
capable manpower, logistics and equipment (S. M. Sohel Mahmud et al., 2013).

NGOs – road safety voluntary and advisory groups

Various NGO’s such as the Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Nirapad Sarak
Chai, Work for Better Bangladesh (WBB), Safe Community Foundation and Poribesh Bachao
Andolon are undertaking road safety campaigns aimed at different groups of road users
throughout the country and helping in creating massive safety awareness, particularly at the
local level.

Funding mechanism and financial resources

Interviews with stakeholders have indicated sustainable and transparent funding to be one of
the key problem areas for improving road safety performance in Bangladesh. This is reflected in
staff capacity limitations, e.g. at ARI or the Highway Police, or lack of equipment or facilities, for
example police enforcement vehicles, ambulances or driving simulators. No insight was gained
on the amount of funding available to implement road safety strategy.

9.4 Roads and Mobility

Bangladesh has road network of 325 681 kilometres including six types of roads, i.e. national
highway (including main and national roads), regional highway, zilla road6, upzilla road7, union
road and village road. The Roads and Highway Department (RHD) is responsible for first three

6 A zilla road is a district road.

7 An upzilla road is a sub-district road.

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types of road while the Local Government Engineering Department (LGED) is responsible for
other three road types. The network comprises some 3 812 km of highways, main or national
roads (1.2 %); 17,488 km of regional and zilla roads (5.4 %) and 304,379 km of other roads (93
%)8. Of the total road network, 65.5% are unpaved. The general condition of the road network
in Bangladesh is considered poor. One of the main issues of having safe roads is the maintenance
of roads (Mazharul Hogue & Salehin, 2013; Sohel Mahmud et al., 2009). There are regular
inspections of existing road infrastructure but road maintenance is not always carried out and
roads tend to become more dangerous. It has been reported that the construction of new roads
has a high priority, whereas road maintenance is given low priority (Sohel Mahmud et al., 2013).

Design standards do not seem to be road safety driven, as road construction follows standard
geometrics with little concern for road safety. Road safety does not feature explicitly in either
the standards or the design process. It should be noted that safety manuals, handbooks and
guidelines have been developed, including the Road Safety Geometric Design Manual, the Road
Safety Engineering Toolkit, the Pavement Design Guide, A Guide for Safer Road Design, often as
part of international technical assistance projects. These manuals and guidelines are not
structurally applied. As mentioned earlier, a significant concern is that the manuals are not
tailored to the situation in Bangladesh and are based on international guidelines and standards.

Some aspects related to road construction and maintenance need to be highlighted for a better
understanding of road safety in Bangladesh.

 Firstly, national highways and regional highways are constructed by RHD by following design
and construction standards as far as possible. But during construction, local people or road
side dwellers occupy the land adjacent to the new road for business purposes. In those
occupied spaces, inhabitants build different permanent or temporary structures, such as
houses, markets, mosques, restaurants, etc. All those facilities need access, which is taken
from the national highway by driveway or direct connection. Within a very short period, a
previously rural area is transformed into a ribbon development sub-urban area with lots of
human activity. This obviously affects the road safety situation once highway construction is
completed. It also limits the scope for future widening or safety works due to the land
scarcity. To date, the Government does not have any specific policy to control the road-side
land use management.
 Secondly, maintenance is often not carried out in an optimal way. Functional capacity, safety
and service life of a pavement depends on how quickly a crack or damage can be identified
and fixed. By addressing a small crack or damage at an early stage, larger damage, such as big
pot holes and shoulder damage can be avoided. To do so, regular inspection and maintenance
is essential; however, this is often absent. Road damage is often fixed when roads are
deteriorated to such an extent that road rehabilitation is needed, at much higher costs. LGED
and other local government authorities, such as union parisod and paurosova, construct
village roads of Bangladesh. In this case, LGED usually allocates the funds, although the local

8 Roads and Highway Department (www.rhd.gov.bd) and Local Government Engineering Department
(www.lged.gov.bd)

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authority can also undertake construction by applying funds received directly from the
government. Usually, local decision makers are more enthusiastic to construct new roads
than maintaining existing ones. The fact that building new roads creates public support is an
important factor in this process. As a result, existing village roads often deteriorate at a rapid
rate.
 Thirdly, the roads under the LGED jurisdiction, such as upzilla roads (UZR), union road (UNR)
and village road (type A & B) have to deal with local issues and problems during construction.
The land on which LGED roads are constructed come from donations of people living
adjacent to the (proposed) roads. The LGED does not have any land acquisition policy and
they cannot change the alignment of an existing road. The very first stage of a LGED road is
an earthen road only for pedestrians. Due to local demands and mobility requirements, these
roads and tracks evolve and get paved and widened. Since the land comes from the local
people without any compensation, it is very hard to maintain standards and in most of the
cases road safety is compromised. The above-mentioned situation has been observed by the
expert team of ARI, who have visited many routes under control of the LGED. For this reason,
it is very hard to incorporate safety features during construction. For instance, sharp and
non-standard curves are causing accidents regularly, but it is not possible to make it mild
curve or at least widen the outside because of inappropriate land acquisition policy. This also
applies to hazardous locations, such as intersections, narrow bridges, school areas or market
areas.
 Fourthly, it is evident that around 74 percent of all metropolitan area accidents are occurring
in the capital Dhaka, where most of the collisions fall in the category “hit pedestrian”.
Pedestrian fatalities per million population is around 488 and the trend is rising. At the same
time there are no guidelines for road safety in the city area.
 Finally, according to ARI, the budget allocation for road safety is insufficient in Bangladesh.
Road safety audits are to a large extent absent and road safety research funds are very
limited.

An evaluation aimed at measuring the effectiveness of black spot analysis and improvement on
the Dhaka-Aricha highway corridor revealed that the major improvement measures included
the widening of the carriageway along with alignment correction, construction of bus bays,
installation of concrete guard posts, warning gates with speed reducing signs at both entry and
exit points (S. M. Sohel Mahmud et al., 2013). The limited site-specific safety improvement
measures undertaken were very effective in reducing the frequency, as well as the severity of
accidents. However, in a few instances the implemented measures did not produce the desired
level of positive effects because of the presence of intense roadside hawking and non-motorized
transport (NMT) activities, conflicting land use (such as rice drying paddies) and the absence of
enforcement measures.

There seem to be no specific projects aimed at road safety improvement regarding road
infrastructure, although road safety is sometimes included in larger projects. This approach has
resulted in less attention being given to road safety in road design, operation and maintenance.

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In Bangladesh road safety audits are introduced by the RHD on a number of locations on the
national highways.

In general, vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians and cyclist, are poorly protected. The
infrastructure is shared by motorised and non-motorised transport, exposing vulnerable road
users to dangerous situations.

9.5 Vehicles
Bangladesh has a vehicle population of about two million motorised vehicles and an estimated
three million or more non-motorised vehicles (Mazharul Hogue & Salehin, 2013; Sohel Mahmud
et al., 2009). Of the motorized vehicles about 60% are 2 and 3 wheeler vehicles and the rest are
vehicles of different categories, such as car, jeep, bus, truck, pick-ups, as presented in Table 21.

Table 21: Registered vehicles in Bangladesh; total number by year of registration.

>May Grand
No Type of Vehicle <2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
2016 Total
1 Ambulance 2,793 219 181 243 338 480 162 4,416
2 Auto Rickshaw 126,763 20,423 23,545 15,697 19,897 20,000 4,690 231,015
3 Auto Tempo 14,266 175 626 395 500 1,095 391 17,448
4 Bus 27,778 1,761 1,439 1,107 1,488 2,391 1,456 37,420
5 Cargo Van 3,522 489 282 687 608 399 252 6,239
6 Covered Van 5,658 2,354 1,421 2,271 2,869 2,354 1,115 18,042
7 Delivery Van 17,063 1,004 774 894 1,176 1,719 940 23,570
8 Human Hauler 6,520 1,152 715 385 225 1,142 1,229 11,368
9 Jeep (Hard/Soft) 32,286 2,134 1,569 1,314 1,870 3,601 2,224 44,998
10 Microbus 66,379 4,051 3,044 2,537 4,313 5,224 2,793 88,341
11 Minibus 25,644 276 249 148 256 323 193 27,089
12 Motor Cycle 759,257 114,616 101,588 85,808 90,685 240,358 100,887 1,493,199
13 Pick Up (Dbl./Sngl.) 32,240 10,460 7,625 6,553 9,554 10,257 4,271 80,960
14 Private Passenger Car 219,830 12,950 9,224 10,472 14,699 21,062 9,671 297,908
15 Special Purpose Veh. 6,371 396 226 227 172 296 236 7,924
16 Tanker 2,706 317 195 226 362 324 163 4,293
17 Taxicab 44,380 75 172 51 374 88 8 45,148
18 Tractor 20,600 5,200 3,494 1,885 1,522 1,699 898 35,298
19 Truck 82,871 7,327 4,335 5,129 8,136 6,330 2,554 116,682
20 Others 1,317 7 1 1,080 1,595 2,073 1,540 7,613
Total 1,498,244 185,386 160,705 137,109 160,639 321,215 135,673 2,598,971
Source: Annual Report for Vehicles Registration, BRTA

Road accidents disproportionately affect the poor given the fact that poor people are forced to
use non-standard and unsafe vehicles. All kind of road users, particularly rickshaw operators
are unaware of traffic safety and are putting lives at risk.

The above especially applies to so-called nasimon and karimon, locally made improvised three
wheelers (flatbed tricycle) used in the urban areas and also on the highways. A study carried out

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in Faridpur Medical College Hospital from January through June 20119, revealed that 56 (12%)
of all patients admitted to the hospital during this period, were accident patients caused by
nasimon and karimon. Most patients (73%) were male; the highest accidents (86%) were
observed among 21-30 years age group and most victims (59%) belonged to the low socio-
economic status. Most victims (55%) were passengers whilst most accidents (82%) took place
in urban areas and on the highways.

Lack of vehicle inspections by the police and national standards admitting vehicles to roads
contribute to the presence of non-standard and unsafe vehicles. Currently, standards do not
provide for frontal impacts, electronic stability control and pedestrian protection (World Health
Organisation, 2015). Given the low enforcement levels, roadworthiness of vehicles is also a
problem. The most common defects of vehicles in Bangladesh appear to be worn out tires, loose
wheels, overloaded axle and faulty brakes. While many vehicles are not roadworthy in
Bangladesh, only 10% of the road accidents is attributed to vehicle defects (Mazharul Hogue,
2014).

Buses and trucks are highly represented in crash statistics, causing around 40% of the total
accidents of buses and trucks and have a fatality rating of 35% (Abdul Hamid, 2013). Many
pedestrians and light vehicles crashes are likely to be caused by crashes with larger (goods)
vehicles which are not fitted with so called ‘blind spot mirrors’ (Abdul Hamid, 2013).

9.6 Road Users

As stated above, not only vehicle drivers are involved in road crashes but also significant
numbers of pedestrians. Reported crash statistics show that in 2010, 47% of road crashes and
49% of all fatalities involved pedestrians, the majority in urban areas. To improve pedestrian
safety physically separated spaces for pedestrians both in urban and rural areas are required to
decrease the number of road accidents (Abdul Hamid, 2013).

Human error by road users is claimed to contribute to an estimated 90% of road accidents and
consequently a large road safety awareness program should be implemented, according to the
BRTA. It should be noted that safety awareness and training is taking place in Bangladesh, for
example targeted at professionals, transport workers, students, and local people through
community policing (as mentioned above). Given the size of the problem, the awareness raising
effort needs to be increased.

Nationwide road crash statistics in Bangladesh reveal a serious threat to children and child
involvement in road accident fatalities in Bangladesh. This was found to be very high with 22%
of the traffic fatalities involving children under the age of 15 years. Also here dedicated
awareness activities are needed, including formal education in primary level schools.

9 Road Traffic Accidents by 'Nasimon' and 'Karimon'-A Study in Faridpur, 2012.

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As mentioned above, there are national speed limits and drink-driving and motorcycle helmet
laws. However, enforcement of these laws is poor. Also mentioned is that laws on seat belts and
using child restraints are lacking.

Incompetent drivers and widespread driving with fake driver licenses appears to be a major
concern for road safety in Bangladesh. Strict licensing requirements are critically important.
Effective driver testing, good control and registration of driving schools are priority
requirements10. However, enforcement of these aspects is poor and this gives the wrong
message to the public, more specifically that road safety is not important and that disobeying
traffic rules and regulations and driving without a valid licence has limited or no repercussions.

9.7 Post-crash Response

Post-crash (emergency) response is not well organised in Bangladesh. There is no national
emergency access number, although emergency numbers are published and made available to
the general public. Bangladesh has no emergency room injury surveillance system.
Furthermore, there is a lack of ambulances. The Highway Police, for example, only has two
ambulances to cover the full network11.

Knowing that time between injury and initial stabilisation is the single most important factor in
patient survival, organising prompt emergency assistance and efficient trauma care
management are essential in mitigating the injury effects of road crashes. At present there is
little evidence of effective trauma care management in Bangladesh.

9.8 Data Collection and Accident Reporting

According to a number of key stakeholders in the process (BRTA, ARI) the data collection and
accident reporting process is not functioning optimally in Bangladesh. This is also reflected by
the WHO Annual Reports, in which the reported road traffic fatalities are estimated to be under-
registered by almost a factor 10 (from 2,538 to 21,316 in the 2015 report), indicating serious
under-reporting and/or crash registration.

According to S.M. Sohel Mahmud et al., the Road Traffic Accident database is neither complete
nor entirely an accurate record of all road accidents. Since the end of the technical support by
DFID to BRTA in early 2005, the BRTA has not had the means to continue with the training of
the police on the collection and entry of road traffic accident statistics. Due to lack of continued
training and monitoring, the level of under-reporting has increased particularly injury and
property damage only accidents. Simultaneously, the quality of the reported data has also
deteriorated. ARI is making an effort to reduce this problem through training of police
personnel, particularly those that are responsible for the data recording and storing in different
police stations, providing technical support and continuous monitoring and guidance.

10 Md. Mazharul Hoque, 2014.s

11 As indicated above, the highway network has a size of 3,812 kilometres.

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ARI is also involved in analysing accident data. The ability to understand road crash situations
and deliver effective road safety countermeasures is seriously limited by the lack of accurate
and comprehensive data on crashes. Accident and casualty data collection systems (police,
hospitals and insurance data) need to be strengthened and co-ordinated, involving different
agencies and research organisations.

9.9 Conclusions and Recommendations

In Bangladesh a number of initiatives have been taken to improve road safety in the country and
to reduce the number of accidents and related casualties and injuries which have a huge
economic impact.

Bangladesh could seriously benefit from an increased effort to improve road safety. A pre-
condition for making road safety effective is strong political commitment. The subject calls for
ownership at the highest political level and the will to place road safety on the political agenda.
To this end awareness is needed of the size and the nature of the problem.

The road safety initiatives would profit from a more holistic, integrated approach. Instead of
addressing individual measures by individual stakeholders, a more concerted action is needed.
Coordination and collaboration between the stakeholders is a must. The Strategic Accident
Reduction Programme (SARP) approach, as mentioned earlier, could support this, since it is
based on historical data and indicates the programme with the implementing authority.

An additional, related pre-condition is the availability of sufficient and stable funding to

implement road safety measures. Without political commitment, road safety funding will remain
a constant problem. Also part of an enabling environment is the development of an appropriate
legal framework, which includes seat-belt, child restraint, mobile phone legislation, vehicle
standards, and driver’s licenses and testing. Legislation only works if laws are properly
enforced. As this is a current weakness in Bangladesh, enforcement needs to be improved.
Budget should be allocated for road safety research, investigation and education for sustainable
and effective outcome.

Another crucial element is the ability to know the size and scope of the problem. To this end
crash data must be collected, recorded and stored in an accident database. Police must be trained
to fill in high-quality accident forms, that are then properly stored. This as input for accident
analysis that will be the basis for defining effective road safety measures. ARI is in a position to
facilitate this process, by both training police and carrying out accident data analysis.

Research should be the main prerequisite for any kind of transportation safety related activities
or improvement project. Nowadays, implementing bodies are planning and conducting activities
without proper study and coordination. As a result, projects are not sustainable or compatible.
Research should be mandatory and implementing bodies need to apply the outcome of research.

The National Road Safety Strategic Action Plans (NRSAPs, see Section 8.3), provide a good basis
for coordinating road safety activities amongst partners in Bangladesh. The shortcomings of the

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NRSAPs prevent the effective implementation and functioning of the NRSAPs. If the pre-
conditions that are mentioned above are met, the NRSAP approach could be revitalised with
policy measures that are clearly interlinked based on a clear prioritisation process which is
linked to clearly defined objectives and targets; a process of monitoring and evaluating the
implementation of the measures, and the effectiveness thereof; clear funding requirements per
measure and proper planning of measures.

In order to streamline the above process, a leading agency is needed. Also here basics are in
place, with the establishment of the National Road Safety Council. Factors preventing the NRSC
to function at its utmost potential need to be addressed.

The NRSC is to drive forward the national road safety policy and plan it needs to concentrate on
the five road safety pillars with results highlighted below:

 Road safety management: these are the factors relating to creating political will; approaching
road safety in an holistic, integrated manner; creating an enabling environment with
sufficient and stable funding and a supporting legal framework, backed-up by proper
enforcement; organising the collection of accident reports and road safety data as input for
accident analysis to define effective countermeasures; define a national road safety strategy
with clear and SMART (measurable) objectives and targets and National Road Safety
Strategic Action Plans to manage the process amongst stakeholders in an integrated way, by
a lead agency, which could be the NRSC. Road safety research should be a driving force for
any kind of road safety management process and funding should be provided for research
and investigation. The Accident Research Institute (ARI), should be supported for scientific
research with modern tools.
 Safer roads and mobility: improve road conditions and prioritise road maintenance; provide
sufficient funding for road maintenance; incorporate road safety in road standards and
design; preparation and application of safety manual; provision of service road for all
national highways; accommodate for vulnerable road users and NMT; carry out black sport
analysis and treatment on a structural basis; increase the use of road safety audits as a means
to reduce accidents; develop and further improve relevant manuals, handbooks and
guidelines and facilitate platforms to exchange best practices in this field between RHD and
LGED. Road safety audit should be carried out for every route. On existing roads,
rehabilitation should be done based on road safety audits/road safety inspections. New roads
should be subject to road safety audit, during design and following construction.
 Safer vehicles: develop standards for vehicles and roadworthiness tests; carry out vehicle
inspections by the police and be strict on nasimon and karimon. Existing nasimon and
karimon might be allowed in village road with some safe modification like including brake,
indicators and so on.
 Safe road users: Presently a driving test is not standard and a heavy vehicle driving test and
training is totally missing. For this reason, driving test procedures should be modernized
with driving simulator (locally calibrated) and practical road test. Invest heavily in road
safety awareness program and training for all relevant stakeholders, including professionals

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(bus and truck drivers), engineers, students, and local people through community policing;
emphasize training and education for children at schools.
 Post-crash response: develop emergency assistance and efficient trauma care management as
these are essential in mitigating the injury effects of road crashes.

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10 Case Study: Cameroon

10.1 Introduction
Cameroon, selected as one of the case studies, is a central African country covering nearly
480,000 km2, with a population of more than 23 million people in 2014 and yielding a population
density of 41 persons/km2. Slightly more than half the population (52%) live in urban areas
(Laurea, 2012).

Cameroon has an underdeveloped road network comprising approximately 230,000 km of road

of which 4,300 km of paved (Transtat, 2014) and claimed to be relatively well appointed.
However, the majority of this network is underdeveloped and a priority programme is being
implemented to develop a priority network of some 23,000 km. The rural road network in
Cameroon comprises less than 50,000 km of roads, equating to a density of around 100
km/1,000 km2 of land area which is low by world standards. The country also has a railway
network comprising some 1,000 km of single track rail connecting the south-eastern port of
Douala with the capital city of Yaoundé and the northern city of Ngaoundéré.

Approximately a quarter of the rural population has access to the road network which is
considered to be in a poor condition (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011). The condition of the
country’s classified paved road network is below the level of peer countries, with only 52% of
the classified paved network in good or fair condition. The quality of the roads in Cameroon
restricts the competiveness of the private sector with approximately one third of the companies
identifying roads as a major constraint for doing business (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011;
Laurea, 2012).

Apart from the relatively poor state of the roads, roads are also unsafe mainly due to livestock
and pedestrians on the road, inappropriate speeds and poor driver discipline. Road and traffic
signs are scarce and speed limits are seldom adhered to due to a general lack of enforcement.
On certain routes, the Gendarmerie has intensified enforcement activities related to speeding,
vehicle condition, overloading and other critical offences.

The Department of Transport has published national transport statistics and these reveal that
Cameroon has some 673,895 registered vehicles in 2014, the majority of these (nearly 77%)
being petrol driven (Transtat, 2014). Car ownership is estimated at between 6 and 7 per 1,000
population which equates to between 135,000 and 156,000 cars.

10.2 Road Safety Performance

Overall performance, registration rate mortality estimates
Figure 14 shows the number of injury crashes, injuries and fatalities as registered by the
authorities in Cameroon and reported by the World Bank Country Office (Sidiki Sidibe). These
data reveal a decrease in the number of injury crashes (from 3,458 in 2000 to 2,954 in 2013).
Based on the registered data the trend for all injury types and crashes appears downwards.

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Figure 14: Registered injuries and fatalities in Cameroon 2008-2014

Source: Sidiki Sidibe

However, given recent discussions with the authorities in Cameroon, and a recent analysis of
the official data, it is apparent that there is significant evidence of under reporting of crashes,
under recording of crashes, a lack of uniformity and interpretation of the definitions of the
various injury categories and generally poor quality of registered crash data. The World Health
Organisation’s report on Global Road safety (World Health Organisation, 2015) estimates that
there were 6,136 road deaths in Cameroon in 2013, this compared to the 1,128 reported by the
police and as shown in Figure 14.

Compared to WHO data this number is underestimated by a factor of 5.3 resulting in an actual
mortality rate of 27.6 per 100,000 population, putting Cameroon among the worst performing
countries internationally when it comes to road safety. Furthermore, the country scores
relatively poorly with respect to the aspects outlined by the five road safety pillars of the United
Nations Decade for Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 (United Nations, 2011). The WHO
assessment suggests that Cameroon faces significant challenges if it is to meet the fatality targets
reductions it has set itself. One aspect that rates particularly poorly is enforcement of various
road user behaviours and this, together with an estimated low rate of crash registration, could
be indicative of the relatively low level of priority given to road safety.

In Cameroon information on road crashes can be obtained from the National Gendarmerie, the
National Police, the Ministry of Public Health and the Ministry of Transport. The Gendarmerie
and the National Police are responsible for crash data recording and capturing. The hospitals
record their own data on crash patients treated in trauma and emergency centres in hospitals.
There is no link between the police and hospital registration systems.

It can be stated that the country currently does not have reliable databases on traffic crashes.
Furthermore, the existing systems are not administered centrally nor are they accessible via a
road crash information system. As mentioned above, each organisation involved in road safety
management collects and administers crash data via their own system. This produces a lack of
consistency in the data processing and undermines the goal of identifying real needs and
defining solutions. It should however be mentioned that the Ministry of Public Works, through
the World Bank and in close consultation with the Ministry of Transport, Gendarmerie, National

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Police and Ministry of Health, has commissioned a consortium led by the University of Rome, to
establish a new crash reporting and recording system in the country. This includes the supply
of supporting hardware and software, training, support, etc. The system is expected to be fully
commissioned by 2018.

Registered fatalities and injuries, historical development

The number of police recorded crash reports in Cameroon are not a stable time series. This is
the result of varying reporting and recording rates, both by the National Police and Gendarmerie.
It is also known that crashes involving motorcyclists (especially taxis) are seldom reported,
primarily because the majority of these operators are not insured and do not comply with legal
requirements to operate as a taxi. Crashes involving pedestrians and cyclists are reputedly also
under-reported adding to the degree of under-registration. Furthermore, the number of
recorded fatalities are based on persons killed within 7 days from a road accident occurring.
This definition of a traffic fatality differs from the WHO norm of 30 days. The most recent WHO
report on road safety (World Health Organisation, 2015) estimates the number of road deaths
in Cameroon to be between 5 035 and 7 236 in 2013. Given the population and income levels,
this number is in agreement with what can be expected from the general relation between per
capita GNP and mortality.

Historic data (National Transit Bureau) reveal that the number of registered road traffic deaths
fluctuates around the 1100 fatalities per year with some peaks and valleys including a sharp
increase in 2010 (Luca Persia et al., 2015). The registration rate and influence thereof is
unknown, but likely to be at most 20% given the WHO estimates.

Figure 15: Development of registered traffic fatalities

Source: National Transit Bureau, 2010

High risk categories and prevalent crash types

A set of crash data covering the period 2008 to 2016 were made available to SWOV for analysis
as part of the new crash registration system project led by the University of Rome. Unfortunately
these data are incomplete and it is unknown what proportion of crashes have been reported and
recorded in this dataset. The data show that records for 2008 and 2009 are the most complete
but after that the recorded crash numbers are a fraction of what is estimated by the WHO and
significantly less than reported by the Ministry of Transport (see Figure 14).

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Based on the results of a recent preliminary analysis of the road safety situation in Cameroon
based on police reported crash data (Luca Persia et al., 2015), the main reported causes of road
accidents were identified to be:
 Poor road user behaviour (70%).
 Mechanical failure due to ageing vehicles (about 20%).
 Poor road infrastructure (around 10%).

This study revealed that the role of human factors (HF) in crash occurrence revealed some
recurrent risk factors, including:
 Speeding;
 The consumption of alcohol and drugs;
 Overloading of vehicles, especially motorcycles (this excludes the activities of transport
resulting from port cargo);
 Non-use of helmets by drivers and passengers of two-wheel vehicles.
 Non-use of seat belts in urban (town) areas

By specifically analysing accidents involving vulnerable road users, such as pedestrians, cyclists
and motorcyclists, the causes can be allocated to:
 The lack of adequate infrastructure (pedestrian crossings, lighting, subways, overpasses, and
taxi stand areas, rest areas etc.).
 Risky behaviours of pedestrians (e.g., illegal crossing, walking on the roads etc.).
 Inconsiderate drivers and interaction with pedestrians
 Mixed function of road and mix of types of road users on the same roadway (e.g., truck,
motorcycle, bicycle, pedestrian, bus on the Corridor Douala Yaounde Ndjamena)
 The illegal and non-designated use of the roadway and pavement/verges (e.g. due to illegal
parking; hawker trading activities, etc.).
 Inadequate driving skills.
 Inadequate road signs and markings and poor driver discipline.

Over the 8 year period more than 20,000 crashes have been recorded by the police and these
reveal that human factors (HF) are judged to play a significant role in crashes. In only 12% of all
the records (and representing 1004 fatalities), HF variables were scored as not having played a
role in the crashes or the role was unknown. Although human factors are, in general, interesting
to know, they are based on the judgement of the persons completing the crash report and
generally are subjective in nature and therefore unreliable for drawing firm conclusions. They
are difficult to observe (especially when the driver is killed), and it should be questioned
whether extensive efforts to improve the use and correct entry of these variables is the most
effective way to improve the database quality and usefulness.

There are almost no records where these variables were scored unknown (non renseigne),
although it is known that these variables are difficult to observe. Due to the complexity of
accurately assigning HF related factors to crashes, this relatively high completion rate suggests

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that probably no (non) is filled in whereas it may have been more accurate to fill in “Unknown”
(non renseigne). This is an important distinction.

Records with a yes for one or more of these variables are presented in Table 22, together with
the proportion of the total that scored yes. It is evident from these results that in some crashes
more than one HF has been assigned since the total of records with a yes recorded for HF is
higher than the number of records (the “Signalements” data file contains records of 20156
crashes and there are 27348 yes HFs recorded). The majority of the records, however, have been
assigned other human factors (autres causes humaines), which is not very informative. This
could suggest that in the majority of the cases this variable is ticked, and all others are no by
default. If that is the case, the meaning of the no for all other values is not meaningful.

Table 22: Number of records with a yes for any of the human factor variables
Human Factor Descriptor Yes Records Yes Rate

Professional error (defautdemetrise) 3,517 17.4%

Dangerous overtaking (depassements dangereux) 593 2.9%
High speed (excesvitesse) 3,768 18.7%
Fatigue 88 0.4%
Inattention 6,167 30.6%
Drink-driving (ivresse du conducteur) 179 0.9%
Dangerous manoeuvre (mouvement dangereux) 438 2.2%
Overloading (surcharge) 107 0.5%
Dangerous parking (stationnementDangereux) 129 0.6%
Caused by pedestrian (cause par pieton) 653 3.2%
Impaired driving by medicine or drugs (medicament ou drogue) 4 0.0%
Other (autre cause humaine) 11,705 58.1%

Table 22 reveals that while for the majority of the crashes a human factor is supposed to be an
important factor, in 58.1% of these cases this factor is “other”. This suggests that, as the actual
factor was not specified, it was not observed.

10.3 Road Safety Management

A primary function in road safety management is a strong focus on results, in other words,
setting of ambitious but realistic targets for road safety. These are not only in terms of targets
for crashes and related injuries, but also relate to aspects such as critical offences, levels of
investment, economic impacts, capacity, enforcement and any other aspects important for a
country to achieve improvements. Based on recent discussions with stakeholders and a review
of supporting documentation, there is little evidence to support a strong results focus in
Cameroon.

Road safety has recently become a national priority in Cameroon with strong political support
and a national sense of urgency from both public, private and civil society to redress the growing

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road safety problems. Similar to many African countries, Cameroon is signatory to the Moscow
declaration of the UN Decade of Action although it has not as yet managed to formally establish
a lead agency responsible for road safety management. Furthermore, the country has no current
road safety strategy in place as a follow up to the last strategy covering the period 2009-2014
(Ministry of Transport, 2008). According to personal communications with politicians and
senior government officials, the development of a new road safety strategy is in the process of
being commissioned. The new strategy will be aligned this with ambitions of the UN Decade of
Action and express the intent of the government and civil society to redress the most pressing
road safety issues. A primary goal is the establishment of an agency responsible for road safety
management.

At the present time the responsibility for "Road Safety Management" (RSM) in Cameroon falls
under the Ministry of Transport who can be viewed as the "Lead Organization" (main entity
coordinating road safety activities). The RSM activities are funded through the national budget
and the Road Fund. Until 2013 the Road Fund dedicated 1.5% of its budget to road safety,
specifically in support of coordination activities, campaigns, education and to some extent
equipment for enforcement. Since 2014 the allocation from the Road Fund has been increased
to 4% indicating a growing commitment from government to redress ongoing and growing road
safety problems, Although there appears to growing support for addressing the road safety
problems, the country cannot be considered to be effectively managing the situation. Recent
discussions with various senior government officials and persons representing civil
organisations revealed that there is a general lack of co-ordination regarding road safety with
each involved organisation and stakeholder following its own initiatives. At a national level,
Road Safety Management has been deemed ineffective (Luca Persia et al., 2015). It does not
comply with best practices internationally especially as far as the coordination function is
concerned. There appears to be a general lack of co-ordination within government structures
but also between responsible government departments and the private sector, particularly the
Coalition of Cameroonian road safety NGO’s (amalgamated in COALIROUTE) and the insurance
sector (amalgamated in Pool TPV). Although a number of national committees have been
established to fulfil the function of co-ordination, these have been largely ineffectual.

Regarding the management of traffic crash data, the current data collection system involving the
Ministry of Transport, the National Gendarmerie, the National Police and the Ministry of Public
Health, is decentralised with each Administration having its own system of data collection, with
its limitations and errors. This is not effective and coordination between the administrations is
poor. This results in an inability to use data coherently and creates difficulties in identifying
aspects that are essential for effective road safety management (identifying problems and
defining the appropriate response measures).

The funding of Road Safety Management is predominantly via the "Road Fund" (Etablissement
Public Administration) and falls under the protection of the Minister of Finance and Minister of
Transport (responsible for roads but not land transport). The funds are specifically designated
for:

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 Protection Programs of the National Road Heritage;

 Programs for prevention and road safety;
 Road Management Programs;
 Recovery operations and organisation of the streets.

In addition to the Road Fund, there are funds for dedicated road safety improvement projects,
generally as part of major rehabilitation projects. Also organisations such as the Gendarmerie
and Police have resources dedicated to road safety, particularly aimed at enforcement of critical
offences and traffic management. NGO’s dedicated to road safety (such as SECUROUTE) secure
funding from external sources and apply these to road safety projects aimed at increasing road
safety awareness through campaigns and training at all levels of society (primary schools to
adults).

There is some consensus that the legal framework intended to support effective road safety
management is inadequate. Certain sectors of the transport industry, namely transport
operators, taxis (and especially motorcycle taxis), driver training schools, roadworthy centres
etc. are not well regulated and the permitting and licensing systems (drivers and vehicles)
cannot be effectively administered or enforced. Ineffective controls and management systems
are open to corruption and maladministration.

The management functions relating to monitoring, evaluation, research are essentially ad-hoc
functions within the current structure with no specific party have an assigned responsibility.
The Ministry of Public Works, through its National High School of Public Works, has some
indirect programmes related to supporting research into specifically the economic costs of road
safety. However, as yet there is no structural place for these functions. A key problem related to
this is the lack of adequate supporting road safety data. Furthermore, there is a clear need to
develop capacity to support these functions. In the area of road safety data management, initial
programmes will be based on collaboration with the crash data project being led by the
University of Rome. These will facilitate technology transfer and capacity building with respect
to monitoring and evaluation and will aim to also ensure the sustainability of the future road
crash data centre.

Promotion is another function which appears to be largely an ad-hoc activity with each
department and is restricted to programmes aimed at the general public. To a large extent
promotion seems to be a core task of organisations such as Coaliroute and Pool TPV and Safe
Right of Way (coalition of private enterprises) and a secondary task of the government
departments with little or no co-ordination between the organisations.

Road safety strategy

The most recent strategy dealing with road safety is the nationally adopted strategy
"Development of a National Strategy for road safety” (Elaboration d'une Stratégie Nationale de
Prévention et de Sécurité Routières) which set out an action plan for the period 2009-2014.

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The strategy focussed on the following:

 A thorough evaluation of road safety activities conducted since 1994;
 Developing a diagnosis of the current road safety situation;
 An analysis of traffic accident data and costing of accidents;
 The development of a 5-year action plan, including evaluating the implementation plan and
assessing the success of it;
 The development of proposals to secure funding and funding sources for road safety.

As mentioned earlier, a new strategic plan covering the period from 2015 has not yet been
developed but is under consideration.

Implementation success
The Ministry of Transport has implemented a number of reforms aimed at improving the
management and security of transport related permits, licences and documents, some of which
are still being finalised. The main reforms include the following:
 Reorganisation of the driver licence examination system;
 Computerisation of driver licenses;
 Introducing a license penalty points system for drivers (this has still not yet come into effect);
 Compulsory roadworthy testing for vehicles;
 Computerised permits for taxi drivers;
 Creation of technical vehicle control centres.

Furthermore, the authorities in Cameroon are addressing the growing problem related to road
user behaviour, particularly those related to infringements of traffic laws and related to critical
offences. The National Gendarmerie (responsible for enforcement of roads primarily outside the
urban areas) has initiated the 85 week "Operation control surveillance-repression” programme
with particular emphasis on the enforcement of:
 Speed limits;
 The use of seat belts;
 Drink driving and drugs;
 The technical control of vehicles.

The Gendarmerie has intensified its enforcement of critical offences since 2011 and has
established a database (with the support of the EU) with which the programme is monitored
and adapted. The results of intensified enforcement and high visibility on specific strategic
transport corridors (such as between Yaoundé and Douala) has been demonstrated in reduced
infringements and crashes.

The controls on urban roads appear to be less effective than those in interurban areas, especially
with respect to offences such as driving without a seatbelt and using mobile phones while
driving. The National Police, unlike the Gendarmerie, have no dedicated programme targeting
critical offences and where enforcement is carried out, it is ad hoc (request from local
authorities) and based on local knowledge. There are no targets set to manage critical offences

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nor are enforcement rates monitored and managed, Police officers appear to indulge certain
risky traffic behaviours and display a degree of preferential treatment of certain (types of)
drivers.

10.4 Roads and Mobility

The total road network in Cameroon comprises about 230,000 km of road. The rural network is
estimated to comprise some 50,000 km of registered road. The main network (which represents
approximately 80% of the total) is composed of 4,300 km of paved roads, 11,600 km of classified
roads and 12,338 km of rural roads (Luca Persia et al., 2015).

The paved roads and the gravel roads are poorly maintained, poorly signposted and generally
have exceeded the usable design life. The untarred rural roads in Cameroon contribute to
crashes that are related to the dry and wet season. During the dry season, road users grapple
with excessive dust which causes visibility problems. In the rainy season road users are
sometimes forced to use the wrong half of the road because of mud or potholes (CONSIA
Consultants, 2013; OSAC Country Council Information, 2014a). During the rainy season, many
gravel roads are not passable by most vehicles.

Pedestrians and livestock share the same roads as motorised vehicles resulting in constant
conflicts and hazards, especially at night. Large logging trucks, as well as other vehicles, use the
roads after dark and often these vehicles travel without lights and are frequently broken on the
side of the road or even on the road. Together with a lack of road signing and lighting, these
conditions make roads in Cameroon dangerous at night.

Like most other central African countries, motorised traffic not only increases during festive and
seasonal periods but also over long weekends where city workers return to their homes in the
more rural areas. According to the Bafia Mobile Gendarmerie Road Safety Unit, road traffic
volumes increase especially during August and December, as do the number of road crashes.

The Department of Public Works has embarked on an extensive programme to rehabilitate the
primary transport corridors linking Cameroon to other countries in the CEMAC region and also
on key strategic internal routes. As part of the CEMAC corridor road safety improvement project
strategic assessments and evaluations (including traffic and safety) have been carried out and
the rehabilitation programme is expected to commence in 2017 and be ready in time for the
Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament to be hosted by Cameroon in 2019. On some
corridors (e.g. Youande-Doula) preparatory work has already started. The works are to be
funded by Cameroon and her CEMAC partners and will be undertaken as Build-Operate-Transfer
(public-private partnerships) concession agreements built around very specific and SMART
(Specific; Measurable; Assignable; Realistic and Time-related) service level agreements aimed
at ensuring optimally safe operation of these vital transport corridors.

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A number of express routes, routes linking vital major urban centres, are also under
development including high quality transport links to the Port of Kribi and high quality links
between Edea and Bafoussam and between Douala and Limbe.

According to the Ministry of Public Works there is also a new network development programme
being developed and in which specific attention is to be given to the expansion of weighbridges
to control the ongoing and severe problems being caused by overloading of especially cross-
border traffic. It is anticipated that overload control will form part of the concession agreements
although issues surrounding the privatisation of this function has yet to be resolved.

10.5 Vehicles
Making certain safety features compulsory to vehicles using the road network, lobbying
manufacturers to provide standard safety features, prohibiting certain vehicles, campaigning
among potential buyers to buy vehicles with higher safety ratings etc. are all actions that are
supportive of the concept of safer vehicles.

Cameroon has no vehicle industry of its own and its vehicle standards, including safety
standards are strongly dictated by terms and conditions set out in various CEMAC agreements.
The country has no standards authority that focusses on standards for vehicles but MATGENIE
(a company of government) is in charge of approval of the standards of new vehicles in
Cameroon. The import of vehicles older than 10 years is not permitted although there are
apparent means by which unscrupulous importers are managing to circumvent this restriction.
There are 25 vehicle control centres all over the country.

Vehicle population
Table 23 shows the composition of the fleet of vehicles operating in Cameroon in 2012. Figures
from the latest national statistics (Transtat, 2014), reveal that the total vehicle population has
grown to 674,246 vehicles in 2014.

Table 23: Vehicle fleet size in 2012

Vehicle type 1. Number of registered vehicles
Bus and coach 44,87
Truck 10,144
Logging truck 9
Minibus 5,539
Motorcycle 224,989
Pickup 20,481
Trailer 67
Semi-trailer 3,033
Tractor (Agriculture) 163
Tractor truck (Horse) 3,656
Scooter 3
Private vehicle (cars) 169,234
Other 1,213
Total 443,018
Source: Luca Persia et al., 2015.

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As mentioned earlier motorcycles are a significant mode of road transport in the country. These
are both used for private transport and for commuter transport especially in cities to quickly
transport people to their destinations. The average age of vehicles in Cameroon is a serious
concern with almost a quarter of the vehicles on the roads older than 20 years old and nearly
half the population older than 10 years, as illustrated in Table 24.

Table 24: Average age of vehicle population (2014)

Average age Vehicle population (2014)
Other 593
< 1 year 19,793
1-5 years 250,213
5-10 years 88,561
10-15 years 61,897
15-20 years 95,524
>20 years 157,665
Total 674,246
Source: Transtat, 2014

Vehicle standards and roadworthiness

Although the country does not have rigorous vehicle standards and technical requirements,
vehicles are issued with roadworthiness certificates upon purchase, often issued by the
manufacturer or dealer. There are no stringent requirements for periodic inspections so the
majority of vehicles on the roads no longer comply with the original safety standards and many
are in poor condition. By law taxis are supposed to be checked every 3 months, cars every year,
trucks and buses every 6 months although the control of this is not evident. The periodic
inspection of motor vehicles is the responsibility of private roadworthy centres throughout the
country. However, these appear to be ineffectual given the substantive evidence of non-
roadworthy vehicles on the roads. Vehicles are supposed to comply with minimum technical
requirements but this is not administered effectively. The (roadside and other) checks that are
carried out may find defects but cannot revoke a vehicle license whereby a vehicle may no longer
use public roads. Vehicle registrations are renewable on a 10-year basis and this is a formality
without stringent controls to ensure that the vehicle is fit for use.

A growing problem is the number of illegal taxis, specifically the use of the motorcycle taxis
which in the urban areas of Cameroun are used to cheaply transport three (and sometimes
more) passengers at a time. These motorcycles are not fit for purpose and, apart from being a
high risk transport mode, are seldom roadworthy and driven by drivers that are unqualified.
Taxis in the urban area are also a high risk mode. In Cameroon, taxis are typically small sedans
suitable for a maximum of 5 occupants. These vehicles are however used to transport larger
numbers (irrespective that there are inadequate seatbelts and they are overloaded). Generally
these vehicles are far from roadworthy, driving without tail-and headlights, bald tyres and held
together with wire. Police in the urban areas turn an apparent blind eye to the potential danger
posed by these vehicles, both to passengers and other road users.

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10.6 Road Users

In Cameroon, males are at an increased risk of road traffic accidents compared to females (Jolion
McGreevy et al., 2014). According to the same source, drinking and driving are a major problem
after dark. Social activities and several religious activities take place in the weekend leading to
increased traffic volumes and a higher risk for (fatal) crashes. Most youths have limited driving
experience and in the weekends they often drive at night and can be drunk while driving.
Commercial drivers often disregard traffic safety and the general traffic rules when they try to
recoup weekend expenses and therefore overload with passengers and increase their speed to
complete more trips.

Human error such as fatigue, lack of skill, drunkenness, speeding and carelessness are major
factors for traffic crashes (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011). There is an evident need for
public awareness of traffic and safe driving. Thus, the government of Cameroon has launched
intense road safety campaigns, strengthened enforcement strategies, driving school
standardisation programs and introduced medical exams for commercial drivers (CONSIA
Consultants, 2013).

Driving licences
A large proportion of (motorcycle) drivers are not legally licensed to operate vehicles. Many
drivers of motorcycle taxis have illegal driving licences. In 2005 it was estimated that
approximately 22% of motorcycle taxi drivers did not have a valid driving license.

Furthermore, the country has many driving schools that do not meet the standards set by
national laws. In 2015, a survey published by the Ministry Transport revealed that less than 30%
of vehicles used by driving schools complied with the regulations. The number of issued drivers
licences appears to be increasing with 86 820 driving licenses issued in 2008 and 136,605 in
2013. Young adults (26-30 years) form the group with the highest number of licenses. Of these,
the majority are males (87.8%).

10.7 Roads
The total road network in Cameroon comprises about 230,000 km of road. The rural network is
estimated to comprise some 50,000 km of registered road. The main network (which represents
approximately 80% of the total) is composed of 4,300 km of paved roads, 11,600 km of classified
roads and 12,338 km of rural roads (Luca Persia et al., 2015).

The paved roads and the gravel roads are poorly maintained, poorly signposted and generally
have exceeded the usable design life. The untarred rural roads in Cameroon contribute to
crashes that are related to the dry and wet season. During the dry season, road users grapple
with excessive dust which causes visibility problems. In the rainy season road users are
sometimes forced to use the wrong half of the road because of mud or potholes (CONSIA
Consultants, 2013; OSAC Country Council Information, 2014a). During the rainy season, many
gravel roads are not passable by most vehicles.

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Pedestrians and livestock share the same roads as motorised vehicles resulting in constant
conflicts and hazards, especially at night. Large logging trucks, as well as other vehicles, use the
roads after dark and often these vehicles travel without lights and are frequently broken on the
side of the road or even on the road. Together with a lack of road signing and lighting, these
conditions make roads in Cameroon dangerous at night.

Like most other central African countries, motorised traffic not only increases during festive and
seasonal periods but also over long weekends where city workers return to their homes in the
more rural areas. According to the Bafia Mobile Gendarmerie Road Safety Unit, road traffic
volumes increase especially during August and December (back to school and year end
festivities), as do the number of road crashes.

The Department of Public Works has embarked on an extensive programme to rehabilitate the
primary transport corridors linking Cameroon to other countries in the CEMAC region and also
on key strategic internal routes. As part of the CEMAC corridor road safety improvement project
strategic assessments and evaluations (including traffic and safety) have been carried out and
the rehabilitation programme is expected to commence in 2017 and be ready in time for the
Women Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) football tournament to be hosted by Cameroon in 2016.
On some corridors (e.g. Yaoundé-Douala national 4 highway) preparatory work has already
started. The works are to be funded by Cameroon and her CEMAC partners.

In line with the Mens’ Africa Cup of Nations (CAN 2019) football tournament to be hosted by
Cameroon in 2019, an express routes will be built from Yaounde to Douala. The second step of
this espress routes Edéa -Douala will be undertaken as Build-Operate-Transfer (public-private
partnerships) concession agreements built around very specific and SMART (Specific;
Measurable; Assignable; Realistic and Time-related) service level agreements aimed at ensuring
optimally safe operation of these vital transport corridors.

A number of express routes, routes linking vital major urban centres, are also under
development including high quality transport links to the Port of Kribi and high quality links
between Edea and Bafoussam and between Douala and Limbe.

According to the Ministry of Public Works there is also a new network development programme
being developed and in which specific attention is to be given to the expansion of weighbridges
to control the ongoing and severe problems being caused by overloading of especially cross-
border traffic. It is anticipated that overload control will form part of the concession agreements
although issues surrounding the privatisation of this function has yet to be resolved.

10.8 Post-crash Response

The time between injury and initial stabilisation is an important factor in the patient’s survival
(the so called golden hour). Prompt emergency assistance and efficient trauma care
management are clearly important in minimising the injury consequences resulting from
crashes. Cameroon does have multiple emergency telephone numbers but lacks emergency

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room injury surveillance systems (OSAC Country Council Information, 2014). The country has
limited resources to deal with road crash victims. There are no dedicated trauma teams for road
crashes and these are treated as any other emergency patients in hospitals which are equipped
with emergency care or special trauma units. Not all hospitals have these facilities nor do all
ambulance services have specialised and trained trauma team personnel.

An emergency centre (with its own emergency call number) has been established in Yaounde
and is the only specialised emergency centre in the country equipped to deal with trauma
patients. However, even this centre has inadequate specialised trauma resource capacity to deal
with the large numbers of traffic crash victims and the geographic area affected by crashes. In
the last year the centre dealt with 8226 trauma cases, 41% of which were victims of road
crashes. The majority of victims were males aged 21-40 years old. Injuries are typically lower
limbs injuries (40%), chest injuries (28%) and head injuries (16%). The majority of injuries
(60%) are related to fractures and lacerations. Many of the victims are reputedly either
pedestrians or passengers/drivers of motorcycle taxis.

According to the centre a major problem in admitting patients is the lack of personal
identification and proof of insurance. Patients may not be admitted unless there is some surety
regarding the payment of treatment. In many cases this cannot be established and since medical
insurance is not compulsory, is not possible to immediately admit all patients. This results in
average admission times of 9 – 16 hours and in extreme cases up to 72h. Prior to admission,
patients are afforded basic emergency care.

There are no records of response times following a call to a crash. The Emergency Centre has
only two ambulances and given this limited resource, response times cannot be guaranteed and
are not monitored.

Reports of road crashes are channelled mainly through several informal and unstructured
media. Currently, only one toll free emergency line is designated for crash/incident reporting.
Government has created a National Committee to follow up road crash victims but this is still
not operational.

10.9 Data Collection and Accident Reporting

Currently Cameroon has no reliable database on road traffic crashes and there is no centralised
information system containing data on road crashes, victims and the road environment. Each
organisation dealing with road crashes has developed their own registration system and each of
these manage these data according to their own needs. There are obvious differences between
the systems and all have certain shortcomings. Whether data on urban crashes is accessed via
the National Police or the hospitals, the quality of the rough data is not reliable enough to use
for road safety analyses. The current road safety performance statistics (outcomes) are
primarily based on data centrally recorded by the National Gendarmerie on the intercity road
network. However, also the National Police record crash data and are responsible for registering
crashes in the urban areas of the country. The Police also record crash data via crash report

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forms but these data reveal significant gaps and errors (e.g., omissions, misinterpretation of a
choice, wrong choices, typing errors etc.). These crash databases are all incomplete and cannot
be reliably used for time series analyses or the production of general road safety statistics
required for road safety management purposes. The datasets do not comply with the
requirements set for supporting a Safe Systems Approach to road safety management.

According to the report "Development of a National Strategy for Prevention and Road Safety",
several studies have been conducted to establish a system for the collection and analysis of
traffic crash data. These include:

 SNC / Lavalin (1998) on the establishment of a crash database;

 BETA CONSULT (2002) on road safety audit and the introduction of Bulletin of Traffic
Accidents Analysis (BAAC), including software data processing;
 CERTES 2005 on the establishment of a system of collection and management of crash data
for road safety improvement.

The Ministry of Transport (MINT) has also acquired computer equipment that can be used to
treat crash data that is available to the Sub-Department of Prevention and Road safety (SDPSR).
The accident analysis module (BAAC) has not yet been implemented also because the data
collection system is not yet fully functional. Currently Cameroon does not have an operational
road traffic crash database or management system.

Parties involved in crash data collection

In Cameroon, the main institutional sources of information on accidents traffic are:
 The Ministry of Transport (MINT);
 The Ministry of Public Works (MINTP)
 The Ministry of Public Health - National Observatory of Public Health (NPSO);
 The Gendarmerie Nationale;
 The National Police.

Other actors involved in the process are:

 The National Institute of Statistics;
 The Association of Cameroon Insurance Companies;
 The Road Safety Associations.

10.10 Conclusions and Recommendations

A primary function in road safety management is a strong focus on results, in other words,
setting of ambitious but realistic targets for road safety. These are not only in terms of targets
for crashes and related injuries, but also relate to aspects such as critical offences, levels of
investment, economic impacts, capacity, enforcement and any other aspects important for a
country to achieve improvements. There is little evidence to support a strong results focus in
Cameroon.

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Road safety has recently become a national priority in Cameroon with strong political support
and a national sense of urgency from both the public and private sectors to redress the growing
road safety problems. Similar to many African countries, Cameroon is signatory to the Moscow
declaration of the UN Decade of Action although it has not as yet managed to formally establish
a lead agency responsible for road safety management. Furthermore, the country has no current
road safety strategy in place as a follow up to the last strategy covering the period 2009-2014.
According to personal communications with politicians and senior government officials, the
development of a new road safety strategy is in the process of being commissioned. The new
strategy will be aligned this with ambitions of the UN Decade of Action and express the intent of
the government and civil society to redress the most pressing road safety issues. A primary goal
is the establishment of an agency responsible for road safety management.

Road safety management in Cameroon does not comply with the requirements of a Safe Systems
Approach and rates as relatively poor when compared to the international state of the art. At a
central government level there is little evidence of a results orientated approach to road safety
management. There is a general lack of coordination and although there is a lead agency, it does
not have the support of a reliable road traffic crash database with which to inform and develop
relevant policies and strategies. Monitoring of performance targets does not take place and there
is a general lack of accountability. The functions relating to funding, legislation, monitoring and
evaluation, research and promotion are not a structural part of road safety management and
appear to be the responsibility of one or more departments and/or ministries without any form
of central co-ordination. Drivers, vehicles and roads are generally of low standard and a lack of
enforcement and supporting road safety infrastructure, all contribute to a declining road safety
situation. The country lacks adequate resources to remedy the current problems and skills are
needed across all the pillars supporting a safe road system.

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11 Case Study: Morocco

11.1 Introduction
Morocco has been selected as one of the case studies. Morocco covers an area of 710,850 km2
and has a population approaching 32 million people, more than half of which live in the urban
areas. The transport sector in Morocco provides some 7% of the GDP, contributes to 15% of
State budget revenue, employs 6% of the labour force and consumes 40% of the national energy
produced (EuroMed Transport Project, 2010).

The road network covers some 61,000 km, of which 41,105 km are asphalt surfaced (tarred). Of
the asphalt roads 9,816 km are categorised highways, 9,221 km as regional roads and 22,068
km as provincial roads (Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012). Of the highways
some 800 km are dual carriageways, i.e. freeways or motorways (EuroMed Transport Project,
2010).

The road network accommodates some 90% of the countries mobility needs and 75% of the
transport of goods needs. Approximately 50 million vehicle-km are travelled on the paved
network on a daily basis, i.e. 67% on highways; 18% on regional roads and 14% on provincial
roads (EuroMed Transport Project, 2010).

Currently there are different estimates of the vehicle population in Morocco. These vary from
2.5 million registered vehicles (EuroMed Transport Project, 2010)(1,825 million private cars,
including LDV) and the rest commercial vehicles (buses and trucks)) to 3.5 million (CNPAC,
2013). Of course the variation in these figures is partly due to the different years of the
estimates: the 3.5 million figure concerns a 3/4 year later estimate than the 2.5 million figure.
The latest WHO estimates reveal a vehicle population of 2,710,000 of which 1,976,172 are cars
and 707,797 are buses and trucks (World Health Organisation, 2013). The vehicle fleet is
relatively old with some 75% of the fleet being 10 years and older.

11.2 Road Safety Performance

Overall performance and mortality
In 2012 4,167 fatalities resulting from road traffic crashes were registered in Morocco
(Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012). In addition 12,251 persons were seriously
injured and a further 90099 sustained minor injuries. The registration rate is unknown at this
stage and it is possible that the actual number of persons injured in crashes is higher than
reported from the registered crashes as is evident from the latest WHO data.

According to the 2015 WHO figures (which uses the same official Moroccan data source) which
report fatalities for 2013, some 3,832 people were registered as killed in traffic crashes (World
Health Organisation, 2015). The WHO estimates that these figures are significantly lower than
the actual number of fatalities. Given under reporting and limited controlling between different
crash data systems and records, the WHO has developed a methodology to estimate the actual
number based on reported and recorded data. The WHO estimates the actual number of

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fatalities in Morocco to be closer to 5,700 in 2010 and 6,870 in 2013, implying that nearly half
of the estimated number of actual traffic fatalities is not recorded in the current system. Using
these WHO estimates, a mortality rate of 18 (2010) and 20,8 (2013) deaths/100,000 population
has been calculated. Although this is lower than the average for the eastern Mediterranean
region, it is significantly higher than that of countries in for instance the European region
(generally less than 10/100,000). However, assuming that the registered numbers reported by
the Moroccan authorities are 100% correct then the mortality rate would be between 12 and 13
traffic fatalities/100,000 population.

The largest proportion of crash fatalities are occupants of cars and light vehicles (37%) followed
by pedestrians (27%) and riders of motorised two and three wheelers (20%). The majority of
fatalities and seriously injured victims occur on rural roads (upward of 70%). More than 80%
of the victims are males.

Registered fatalities and injuries, historical development

Over the period 2003 – 2012 registered road crashes increased from 53,814 to 67,151, an
increase of 25% (Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012). Over the same period the
number of fatalities has increased from 3,878 to 4167, an increase of 7.5%. In 2013 the number
declined to 3832. The number of fatalities is not constant and the trend reveals fluctuations with
sudden decreases in certain years (e.g. 2005; 2010 and 2013) followed by increases in following
years (Figure 16). However, the overall crashes reveal a relatively constant increase of 1.5- 2%
per year.

Figure 16: Development of police reported traffic fatalities in Morocco

Source: Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012

The trend in the number of registered injuries in Morocco reveals a similar trend with the
number increasing from 84522 in 2003 to 102350 in 2012 (Ministère de l’Equipement et du
Transport, 2013), an increase of 21%. As with fatalities the trend is upward with little indication
of reversal.

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Figure 17: Development of registered injuries in Morocco

Source: Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012

The registration rates over the years are not reported so it is unclear whether the quoted
numbers have been corrected for the effect of under-registration.

The development of serious road crashes over 2011–2015 is shown in Table 25 and Figure 18.

Table 25: Development of serious injury crashes

2011 2012 2013 2014 2015
Road accidents 67,082 67,151 67,926 68,279 78,003
Fatal road accidents 3,636 3,531 3,265 3,021 3,365
Traffic fatalities 4,222 4,167 3,832 3,489 3,776
Seriously injured 12,482 12,251 11,641 10,185 10,647
Source: Official Road Safety Statistics Morocco (Ministre de l’Equipement et des Transports)

Figure 18: Fatal traffic accidents, traffic fatalities and seriously injured - Morocco (2011-15)
14000 Fatal traffic accidents
Traffic fatalities
12000 Seriously injured

10000

8000

6000

4000

2000

0
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

Source: Official Road Safety Statistics Morocco (Ministre de l’Equipement et des Transports)

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It is evident from Figure 18 that the downward trend in road safety accidents and fatalities has
not continued in 2015. It should be pointed out that the development of road safety crashes has
not been corrected for the development in the number of road users and the vehicle park in
Morocco. This would take a more refined statistical analysis that lies outside the scope of the
present case study.

High risk categories and prevalent crash types

Passenger cars and motorcycles are the most common vehicles involved in crashes. Some 80%
of crashes involving vehicles in rural areas involve a car of motorcycle. In urban areas some 88%
of crashes involve cars or motorcycles (with nearly 34% of these being motorcycles). A concern
is that is significant proportion (35%) of all vehicles involved in crashes is older than 15 years
old. Some 27% of motorcycles involved in crashes are older than 9 years whereas some 57% of
cars in crashes are this age. Even considering the rapid advancement of technology in the
automotive sector this implies that many cars and motorcycles on Moroccan roads do not have
the latest technology such as state-of-the-art occupant protection, ABS and ESP. Furthermore,
although it is compulsory to wear seat belt both in front seats and back seats since 2005, it is not
certain when it became compulsory for new vehicles to be fitted with rear seat belts or by which
date all cars had to be (retro) fitted with rear seat belts.

Pedestrians are a particularly high risk group with more than 27% of those victims killed and
more than 21% seriously injured in traffic crashes being pedestrians. Another high risk group
are motorcyclists (20% of all fatalities and ca. 29% of all serious injuries). Considering that the
modal share of these groups is usually relatively small this may imply that they are
disproportionality represented in the number of serious injuries and fatalities.

11.3 Road Safety Management

Road safety
The overall responsibility for road transport rests with the Ministry of Equipment and Transport
and Logistics (METL) which is responsible for the administration and regulation (legislation) of
road transport.

Road safety management falls under the responsibility of the Inter-ministerial Committee on
road safety (CISR) which is chaired by the Head of Government. Under the inter-ministerial
committee is the Permanent Committee on road Safety (CPSR) which is headed by the Minister
of Transport. Reporting to this committee are the Regional Committees (CRSR) headed by the
governor (called the Wali) of each region. These road safety management bodies have been
established by decree.

The Department of Road Transportation Safety (DTRSR) has the overall administrative
responsibility for road traffic safety in the country and supports the above committees. CNPAC
is responsible for road safety education and campaigns whereas road safety engineering and
traffic law enforcement activities are spread across all departments with no apparent central

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controlling department. Co-ordination of the road safety activities takes place in the earlier
mentioned committees.

CNPAC is a leading road safety organisation in Morocco and because of its central role it is
mentioned separately. The CNPAC is a public utility establishment in 1977. It is a legal entity,
and placed under the technical control of the METL and under the financial authority of the
Ministry of Economy and Finances. In order to improve road safety, CNPAC participates in
studying and proposing, with the competent authorities, all intended measures to reduce the
number of traffic accidents; in the education of the public and in putting materials at the disposal
of the services in charge of road safety.

Road safety strategies

Following the growing road safety problems at the beginning of this century, the Moroccan
Government, assisted by a Swedish Agency, developed a national road safety strategy whose
objectives are assigned to reverse the upward trend in the annual number of fatalities and
serious injuries, and reduce a sustained and continuous fatalities and serious injuries.

To implement this strategy, the government has developed three-year emergency Integrated
Strategic Plans (PSIU), which integrates actions with immediate effect and value on improving
road safety in Morocco. The first of these was the 2004 version (the strategy for 2003-2013)
which sets the foundation for all later strategies.

The 2004 PSIU outlined an action plan directed at the following 7 focus areas:

1. Coordination and management of road safety at a high level;

2. Legislation;
3. Control and sanctions;
4. Driver training and reform of the license tests driving;
5. Road infrastructure and urban roads;
6. Relief provided to victims of traffic accidents (Emergency services); and
7. Communication and education.

The plan sets out an ambitious programme to undertake a number of steps and actions in each
of these areas. Examples included the formation of various committees to better manage and co-
ordinate road safety (Focus area 1); the revision of the road code and changes to legislation and
laws (Focus area 2); additional equipment and improved coordination of enforcement activities
(Focus area 3); adoption of a professional driver code for track and bus drivers (Focus area 4);
develop and improve rural road standards and reduce black spots (Focus area 5); improving
skills and training of emergency response personnel (Focus area 6) and to adopt and develop
action plans and strategy implementation for communication at all levels of the population
targeting specific actions in the other focus areas and achievement of objectives (Focus area 7).

PSIUI was followed up by PSIU II in 2008 (Ministry of Equipment and Transport, 2006) which
covered the period 2008-2010. PSIUII reported the progress with regards to PSIUI

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implementation and it was clear that significant progress was made by implementing actions
and measures across all focus areas. For example, it is evident that the coordination and
management structure proposed by the plan has been adopted and is currently functioning. Also
changes were introduced to vehicle and driver testing and extensive communication and
education campaigns were launched.

The third plan PSIU III, covering the period 2011-2013 (Standing Committee on Road Safety,
2010), seeks to support the decline in road safety indicators. It will be dedicated to the
implementation of all the provisions of a new law (52-05) on the rules of the road, the
implementation of tools, the acquisition of all equipment, building and human resources
required and adds two focus areas (focus areas 8 and 9), namely:

8. Promotion of road safety education at schools and;

9. Promotion of scientific research and technological monitoring of traffic and traffic safety.

PSIUII and PSIUIII indicate that the action plans implemented in PSIUI and PSIUII have had an
impact on road crashes and more specifically on fatalities. This is especially evident in the period
2008- 2010 (Ministry of Equipment and Transport, 2006) and this decline is attributed to these
interventions. However, the number of fatalities in 2011 increased to a level above that of 2008
and hence the downward trend appears temporary. Consequently a more sustainable approach
to manage the problems seems necessary.

In 2013 the Ministry of Equipment, Transport and Logistics adopted the new outline for the
period 2013-2016 which focused on the nine axes of PSIU III.

The PSIU-4 covers the period 2016-2025. Its ambitious target is to halve the number of traffic
fatalities in 2015 and to achieve a 25% reduction in traffic fatalities in 2020. Expressed in
numbers, the targets are to reduce the number of traffic fatalities to 2,800 or less in 2020 and to
1,900 or less in 2015. The contents of PSIU-4 were not yet available at the time of this report.

Besides the PSIU, which has a focus on change of driver behaviour through legislation,
enforcement and education, further improvements in road safety are being planned by road
improvement plans. The “programme spécial des aménagements de sécurité” (PSAS) covers the
period 2014-2018. An important aim of this project is to improve safety of main highways by
installing guard rails. Besides plans for improving highway safety, Morocco, also has plans for
extending and improving the rural road network in the coming years (e.g. OITC, 2013)

The action plan for road safety 2013-2016 (“Orientations stratégiques 2013-2016”) lists short-
term actions for 9 spearheads of policy:

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1. Management and coordination of road safety at central level;

2. Further improvement in road safety legislation;
3. Further implementation and improvement of traffic enforcement;
4. Improvement of driver examination and licensing procedures for drivers and professional
drivers;
5. Further improvement of road infrastructure;
6. Further improvement of emergency medical care;
7. Road safety communication and campaigns;
8. Road safety education at schools;
9. Promotion of scientific research and monitoring of traffic and traffic safety.

The Moroccan Government has decided to let the World Bank evaluate its road safety strategy
for the period 2003-2013. Therefore, the Moroccan Government has, at this stage, developed
only road safety ‘orientations’ for the period 2014-2016. These have yet to be formally adopted
by the Inter-ministerial Committee of road safety (headed by the chairman of the Government);
and could then form the basis of the next road safety strategy.

The PSIU-4 covers the period 2016-2025. Its ambitious target is to halve the number of traffic
fatalities in 2015 and to achieve a 25% reduction in traffic fatalities in 2020. Expressed in
numbers, the targets are to reduce the number of traffic fatalities to 2800 or less in 2020 and to
1900 or less in 2015. The contents of PSIU-4 were not yet available at the time of this report.

Besides the PSIU, which has a focus on change of driver behaviour through legislation,
enforcement and education, further improvements in road safety are being planned by road
improvement plans. The “programme spécial des aménagements de sécurité” (PSAS) covers the
period 2014-2018. An important aim of this project is to improve safety of main highways by
installing guard rails. Besides plans for improving highway safety, Morocco, also has plans for
extending and improving the rural road network in the coming years (e.g. OITC, 2013)

International treaties and declarations

Morocco is signatory to the following international treaties and conventions regarding road
transport and road safety and has adopted the following resolutions as a member of the United
Nations (Source: UNECE-Transport):
 Road traffic
 Road signalling
 Convention on the contract for the International carriage of Goods by road (CMR) of 1956
 Customs Convention on the International Transport of Goods under Cover of TIR Carnets
(TIR Convention) of 1959 and revised in 1975
 Transportation of dangerous goods (ADR)
 Transportation of perishables (ATP)
 Location and validity of driving licenses
 Temporary importation of private road vehicles
 Custom convention on container transport

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 United Nations resolution 64/255 (Improving global road safety)

 The Moscow Declaration of 2009 - First Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety: Time
for Action
 CITA: common interest organisation in the field of road vehicle inspection.

Implementation success
As mentioned earlier the PSIU’s have had a significant and positive impact on road safety
management in Morocco. Various steering and co-ordinating committees have been formed and
have taken responsibility of the road safety problems. These are generally chaired by high
ranking officials and are backed by Government. Blackspot remedial programmes have been
implemented and specific attention has been given to increase and improve communication and
training among road users. Road infrastructure has improved as have controls and sanctions
and supporting legislation as is described in the following sections.

Of particular note is the significant investment over the period 2011-2013 in which the Roads
Directorate of the Ministry invested over 920 million Dirham in road safety infrastructure
improvements.

Selected Institutional Management Functions

The “Direction des transport routiers et de la Securité Routière” (Department of Road
Transportation Safety - DTRSR) is responsible for ensuring coordination between all partners
in road safety. The DTRSR has the lead agency role for road traffic safety lies and they have a
mandate to administer the road safety strategy and there is a separate national budget allocated
to achieve this. However, there is no specific performance targets linked to this. The DTRSR must
coordinate road safety matters with and between the “Direction des routes” (Department of
Roads and Road Traffic), the Ministry of the Interior, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of
National Education and CNPAC.

CNPAC is responsible for the implementation of axes No. 7 and No. 9 of the road safety strategy
in Morocco, respectively on communication and awareness and scientific research and
technological intelligence., Evident from discussions with the Moroccan counterparts is the need
to develop a better understanding on the Research and Development Pillar which supports the
effective implementation and monitoring of the Moroccan road safety strategy. Specifically the
following issues and topics are deemed relevant:
 Road safety management, particularly at the local level (municipalities, cities, provinces); this
includes monitoring, assessment and evaluation activities, and the development and
implementation of safety performance indicators (so-called SPI’s);
 Enforcement: Surveillance, control for speed, and vehicle inspection. Currently the Ministry
of Infrastructure, Transport and Logistics is responsible for vehicle registration through
centres immatriculateurs, and it is the only organisation that maintains the database for
vehicle registration.

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In 2015, CNPAC had a budget of 125 million dirham for its program of road safety education and
campaigns.

Since the introduction of PSIU I, Morocco has targeted a goal of an annual 5% reduction in fatal
crashes. From the statistics it is evident that this target has not been met (especially if measured
over the longer term). A number of policy reviews have been conducted but these show that the
effect of implemented initiatives on (fatal) crashes is limited and certainly not sustained.
Although a general strategic direction is evident, the goals are general in nature and therefore
difficult to effectively monitor and evaluate, especially in terms of effect on the number of
crashes.

Making any necessary adjustments to interventions and institutional outputs does not routinely
take place at the present time. Annual road crash statistics are produced by the Department of
Roads and Road Traffic but these are no more than general statistics and are not evaluations of
policy directives or strategic initiatives. Investments into road safety are not routinely assessed
in terms of their benefits nor is there a clear understanding of what the effects of the various
road safety initiatives are.

Legislation governing road safety

Road safety is legislated under the 52-05 law.
The most important legislative changes affecting road safety were introduced through the
adoption of the (January 17) 2005 decree related to traffic law enforcement which established:
 Compulsory wearing of seat belts (front and back) in all vehicles with a maximum loaded
weight of 3.5 ton;
 Prohibits the use of hand held mobile phones during driving;
 Prohibits children less than 10 years old to sit in the front seats of passenger cars;
 Makes it compulsory for passenger transport vehicles with more than 15 seats and heavy
goods vehicles with a carrying capacity exceeding 8 ton, to be equipped with at least ABS and
decelerators and speed limiters.

Morocco also has laws governing the use of public roads (signing and rules of the road), the use
of vehicles on public roads, driver licencing and testing, wearing of helmets in traffic and drink
driving. In addition, a new Highway Code was adopted in October 2010 which introduced
stricter controls and penalties for traffic offenders. The penalty points system was introduced
in the new law and the possibility to imprison certain traffic offenders was introduced. The law
facilitates the provision and use of automated speed enforcement camera’s, new equipment and
infrastructure for enforcement personnel etc. Although the Code brought about significant
changes to road safety management and had a marked effect on road crashes and fatalities, the
effect was short term and as a result some amendments have now been proposed to the code
including making it possible to fine offending pedestrians and imprisoning the party guilty of a
crash.

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Morocco has about 100,000 civil associations which are active in various sectors of social and
cultural welfare. In 2011, the constitutional law was changed to provide room for a larger
involvement of these associations in the process of proposing and preparing legislation,
including the legislation concerning road safety.

Monitoring and evaluation

Although there are various information systems in place in Morocco, these are in principle all
stand-alone systems serving a specific purpose. For road safety management to be effective, a
comprehensive information platform containing data relating to crashes, vehicles, drivers,
enforcement and adjudication, traffic (speeds, volumes etc.) is required. Since monitoring is an
essential component of a management system, these data need to be accurate, current and
reliable. Many of these data are not readily available (e.g. at the Local authority level) and it is
anticipated that initially such a system will be developed around data on the national (rural)
road network. Since these data serve many end-users it may be logical to establish a central
unit/agency responsible for data collection, validation and quality control. This would seem to
logically fit in the activities of the Roads and Road Traffic Department.

The current data collection, analysis, validation and sharing mechanisms of road safety
management information in Morocco are not optimal for effective management of crashes in the
country. In most cases no performance based criteria have been set for potential road safety
indicators but this could be due to the fact that benchmarks cannot be set because the data
needed to set them are unavailable. Although there are state of the art registration systems these
are not always linked with other systems and or have attempts to integrate these been explored.
A detailed review of the systems may be required to identify opportunities for exploiting these
data to improve road safety management and to facilitate target setting.

Research and development and knowledge transfer

Research, development and knowledge transfer on road safety matters take place on an ad-hoc
basis in Morocco. In the particular area of post-crash response various scientific evaluations
have been performed by medical universities (Mohammedia, 2010; Messnan, 2014; Mohammed,
2013; Rhidifa, 2013; Kandri Rody, 2015). A dedicated road safety research programme, backed
by sustainable funding sources and carried out by dedicated research staff is currently not
apparent. This project is an example of one which typifies capacity building and professional
exchange but needs to be expanded to include all aspects of road safety. The feasibility of
establishing a dedicated road safety research institute as an independent entity or as part of a
future road safety agency needs to be further explored.

By far, cooperation between the different road safety stakeholders was mentioned as the key to
improve road safety. The broad representation of Moroccan officials (DTRSR, CNEH, CNPAC,
CNER, Police and Gendarme) was warmly welcomed. This cooperation is promising and should
be maintained and expanded.

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11.4 Roads and Mobility

The Roads and Road Traffic Department is responsible for the national, provincial and regional
road network in Morocco. The Roads and Road Traffic Department applies various road design
standards, which have been developed for local conditions. Originally based on international
standards, these have been adjusted and tailored to fit the Moroccan situation. Road designs are
subject to road safety audit (pre-opening) although this is not mandatory.
The following remarks can be made regarding roads and mobility:
 The road network has been classified. The question is how functional the classification is: i.e.
is there synergy between the function, form and use of the roads, do the correct roads connect
activity centres, does the traffic correctly use these roads and are these roads correctly
designed for that use?
 There are procedures applied for the setting and posting of speed limits. However, the
credibility of the speed limit is not a factor and this should be considered (Aarts et al., 2009);
 There is a network classification system in place and design standards applied to the various
road classes. However, the classification systems is elaborate and consideration could be
given to simplifying this to reduce the number of road categories (Dijkstra, 2011; Schermers
& Vliet, 2001; Wegman & Aarts, 2006);
 Road maintenance programmes are in place and fed by regular inspections such as pavement
condition assessments, visuals, quality of road signs and markings;
 Vulnerable road users and facilities for these are not very well provided for in the rural areas
nor are there extensive guidelines covering these provisions in use. There is a new program
(2014- 2018) named PSAS dedicated to the infrastructural safety of rural roads.

11.5 Vehicles
This aspect relates to the conditions under which vehicles can safely make use of the road
network. According to best practice countries need to set safety standards and rules and control
these to ensure that vehicles on its roads continually meet these safety standards.

Making certain safety features compulsory to vehicles using the road network, lobbying
manufacturers to provide standard safety features, prohibiting certain vehicles, campaigning
among potential buyers to buy vehicles with higher safety ratings etc. are all actions that are
supportive of the concept of safer vehicles.

In 2013 Morocco had a vehicle population of 3,286,421 registered vehicles of which 2,314,826
passenger cars and other 4-wheeled light vehicles (World Health Organisation, 2015). According
to this source, there are no national vehicle standards applicable to frontal impacts, pedestrian
protection and electronic stability control.

Tasks in the vehicle chain

The governmental body that is assigned to licensing vehicles in Morocco is DTRSR who covers
most tasks in the licensing process. DTRSR are also responsible for the administrative

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admission, transfer of ownership and suspensions of vehicles. CNEH is responsible for

conducting periodic technical inspections (PTI) and vehicle approval to the public road.
Both organisations fall under the responsibility METL. METL is, amongst others, responsible for
policy, supervision, legislation and regulation concerning road transport and road safety.

Morocco has a central motor vehicle register, called le Fichier National d’Immatriculation (FNI)
that is maintained by DTRSR. The personal data of owner(s) and/or holder(s) are taken from
the Carte Nationale d’Identité Electronique (CNIE) that is handed over in case of (re)registration.
The data in the FNI are not updated by the personal register in the Ministry of Internal Affairs
(Ministère de l'intérieur). The registered owner/holder(s) of the vehicle are responsible
themselves to inform the FNI about any changes in their (personal) data at the centres
immatriculateurs.

Besides the technical information the registers contains information about penalty points, open
fines and the PTI status.

The regional departments, de Direction Général de la Sureté National and the Gendarmerie
Royale, have no online access to this register. They work with a copy and in case of doubt, or
need for actuality central points within the organisations, can have online contact. Information
about insurance and tax are not part of the FNI. The responsible ministries keep their own
administrations.

Based on the “code de la route”, the registered owner and/or hirer/user is responsible for traffic
offences, paying taxes, paying fines, applying penalty points and for being insured. In case of a
road side inspections the driver will be held responsible for a possible traffic offence. The driver
will have to pay and will incur penalty points if at fault. If the vehicle is caught on radar, the
owner will have to pay the fine. If not the driver, the owner has the possibility to forward the
fine and the penalty points to the driver. The adjudication of fines is not well documented and it
is not certain which proportion of issued fines are actually paid, dealt with in court or otherwise.

If the person in question denies having driven the vehicle the registered owner/holder has to
pay the fine(s). However, the penalty points cannot be taken from any drivers’ licence. When the
offence registered by radar is committed with a truck, the registered owner/holder can give the
names of the driver, the dispatcher and the receiver of the goods. All of these (legal) persons
have a shared responsibility.

The Minister of Interior maintains a separate register of stolen vehicles.

Organisation of IT
The DSI (Direction de Système d’Ínformation) maintains the central motor and driving licence
register technically for DTRSR.

Within METL, DSI is responsible for most of its hardware and software. DSI also maintains the
ICT for both the vehicle and driving licence registers. DSI works in 80% of the cases for DTRSR.

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Projects are contracted and sometimes experts are hired in. All regional offices of the DTRSR are
connected to the central database. Modifications carried out by the regional offices are
processed real time and on-line. How the registration system is organized (in one centre, which
also supports the applications at the prefectures) was not investigated.

Organisation of International activities

In addition to what is mentioned earlier, METL is responsible for all international aspects related
to vehicles and driving licences. The Ministry consults other ministries, especially the Ministry
of Internal Affairs, with regard to issues relating to vehicle registration and driving licences
crime. Morocco is not a contacting partner of WP29 (Harmonization of Vehicle Regulations) of
the ECE. Morocco is considering participation because its legislation is to a large extent based
on WP29 of the ECE.

Vehicle approval
Policy, supervision and legislation concerning both type approvals and other technical
inspections of vehicles are the responsibility of the METL (DTRSR) and is delegated to Centres
Immatriculateurs and CNEH.

Vehicle approvals are conducted by the CNEH. The legal basis is the code de la route 52-05. The
vehicle regulations are based on ECE regulation from WP29. Also standards like the American
Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) and the Canada Motor Vehicle Safety Standards
(CMVSS) are accepted. New vehicles with a European Type Approval are admitted in Morocco
without further testing. Individual vehicles undergo an administrative test (Certificate of
Conformity) and masses and dimensions are checked. Imported vehicles may not be older than
five years (date of first registration) with one exception per lifetime. That is when a Moroccan
citizen older than 60 years resettles in Morocco in which case they may, for that one instance,
import a vehicle between 5 and 10 years old. Morocco does not have a facility for crash testing
and issuing type approvals of new vehicles.

Licensing
The administrative activities for licensing vehicles are the responsibility of DTRSR and the
centres immatriculateurs. Each centre immatriculateur has a direct online connection to the
central vehicle registration, which is held by the DTRSR.

The licensing system is vehicle and department based. Change of vehicle ownership cannot be
registered unless there is a valid PTI and outstanding fines on the vehicle are paid. DTRSR keeps
up the administration of these fines (Bureaux de Opposition). When a vehicle owner moves from
one region to another, the vehicle is relocated to another region, but retains the same license
number and number plates. The owner must register the vehicle at the DTRSR in the new region.

Vehicle owners are required to report their personal details (name and address) and any
changes to the centre d’immatriculation. Omissions and abuses are subject to strict sanctions,
such as high fines and imprisonment.

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Registration
The departments register all motor vehicles, such as passenger vehicles, commercial vehicles
and lorries, motor cycles, agricultural tractors and trailers above 750 kg. New motorcycles of
more than 50 cc are currently being registered although regulation is being developed for the
registration of new mopeds below 50 cc.

Since some years Morocco uses credit card type registration and licencing documents. The
documents have a chip on the cards containing technical vehicle information and information
on the vehicle and the owner like penalty points. Drivers must have this document on them when
driving the vehicle. The police forces can access the information on the chip by using a special
reader.

First registration
Around 163,185 new vehicles and 424,145 imported (second hand) vehicles were registered12
in 2013. The license plate stays on the vehicle during the entire life of the vehicle. The vehicle is
registered on the name of the owner or the holder of the vehicle. In the case of long-term hire or
leasing (i.e. longer than two years), the vehicle is registered in the name of the hirer or user. The
carte grise will then include both the name of the owner (the rental or leasing company) and the
hirer or user. A carte grise may list several names. First vehicle registrations and transfers of
ownerships are carried out by the DTRSR. To obtain a carte grise, owners or holders have to
provide details related to a buying contact, insurance and tax declaration. They also have to pay
for the document. However, unpaid fines may lead to a situation where vehicles cannot be
transferred, so that the centre d’immatriculation will not issue a new carte grise.

Amendments and changes

Around 379,000 changes are entered into the vehicle register every year.

Suspension
There is no formal temporary suspension procedure. Owners who wish to take their vehicles off
the road can request a cancellation of the carte grise. In such cases the vehicle will not be
registered as demolished.

Deregistration
Every year around 1,120 vehicles are deregistered, Deregistration means that the status of a
vehicle in the vehicle registration database is changed, i.e. from active into scrapped or
exported.

There is a statutory obligation to deregister demolished vehicles, but in practice this rule is
rarely applied. When a certified expert declares that a vehicle is seriously damaged in an
accident it can be deregistered. Comparison between the annual numbers of registered (almost
600,000) and deregistered (just more than 1,000) shows that, unless vehicles last for more than

12 Source DTRSR 2014.

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500 years, a very large proportion of vehicles is not deregistered.

There is currently no procedure in place to change the status of a vehicle in the vehicle database
when a vehicle is exported.

Registration number and number plates

The alphanumeric characters on the number plate consist of three elements. A group of one to
five digits, followed by one or two Arabic letter(s) followed by one to or two numbers. The letter
corresponds with the city were the vehicle was registered.

Currently DTRSR only sets the standards for the dimensions and size of the number plates. Local
entrepreneurs produce the license plates. In practice the quality (and the reliability) of the
licence plate is not sufficient. This leads to difficulties with for instance the ANPR. The use of
false number plates is a serious offence in Morocco, punishable by up to three months’
imprisonment.

Vehicle taxes and fees

Periodical tax
A differentiated tax (also called the ‘vignette’) is obligatory for all motor vehicles. The tax charge
depends on the capacity (in horsepower) of the vehicle. The charges are set by the Ministry of
Finance. The average tax charge for an average passenger vehicle was 750 Dirham. Vehicle
owners can stop paying tax once a motor vehicle is not used on public roads. However, should
the owner wish to drive the vehicle on public roads again, then they must pay all the tax for the
period the vehicle was not used on public roads plus a fine.

Registration fee
A registration fee is charged on the issue of the carte grise (both for the initial carte grise and for
any amendments). This fee depends on the vehicle’s output (in horsepower) and engine type
(diesel, petrol etc.). The fees are set by the region, and the earnings go to the regions. The
registration free applies to all vehicles, with the exception of those belonging to the Corps
Diplomatique.

A supplementary fee, called the ‘taxe parafiscale’, is charged on the issue of a carte grise for a
commercial vehicle or lorry. This fee depends on the vehicle’s weight, and ranges from 270
Dirham for vehicles weighing up to 3,500 kg to 2,550 Dirham for those weighing more than
11,000 kg.

Insurance
A sticker on the front window indicates that the vehicle is insured. Drivers must have the
insurance document with them when driving the vehicle, so that they can present it to the
authorities on request. When applying for a carte grise, owners or holders do not have to provide
proof of insurance. The central motor vehicle register does not record insurance details.

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Tracing and enforcement

Tracing and enforcement are the responsibility of different police forces. The gendarmerie
(outside the built up area) and the police (inside the built up area) carry out regular road side
inspections. Both technical and driving proficiencies are checked. The police has no on line
access to the databases of the DTRSR. The police and gendarmerie have a copy of the vehicle
database and they can contact DTRSR among other things about updates, PTI, Motor vehicles tax
and insurance issues. Plans are being elaborated to establish an online connection. There is a
separate DTRSR inspectorate conducting road side inspection on driving and resting times
(tachograph) and the speed limiter.

According to 2008-2010 figures published by the Comité Permanent de la Securité Routière

(2011), there were about 4,000 monthly radar checks on speeding resulting in about 140,000
detected speed violations annually. On average a further 400,000 other traffic violations were
enforced and fines issued in 2008-2010 (Comité Permanent de la Securité Routière, 2011). Table
26 presents information on enforcement outcomes in period 2013-2016.

Table 26: Development of serious injury crashes

2013 2014 2015 2016 (*)
Direction Générale de la Sûreté Nationale:
505,718 643,053 663,165 503,739
traffic enforcement inside urban areas
Gendarmerie Royale:
527,153 670,084 749,661 554,631
traffic enforcement outside urban areas
Ministère de l'Equipement, du Transport et de la Logistique:
202,450 465,757 401,046 1,010,930
speed camera enforcement
Source: Official Road Safety Statistics Morocco (Ministre de l’Equipement et des Transports)
(*) from 01/2016 to 30/09/2016

Periodic technical Inspections

Annual Periodic Technical Inspections (PTI) for passenger cars is compulsory after five years.
For commercial vehicles and taxis the inspection is yearly. For buses the inspection is every six
months. The PTI is divided among five commercial organisations including DEKRA and SGS. The
inspections are conducted in PTI stations that only carry out the PTI. Maintenance and repair
are carried out by private workshops. The number of PTI inspection centres is about 250. 2,081
million vehicles have to be inspected because they’re older than 5 years or due to change of
ownership. Every station works with one or more “lines”. Pro line one can do pro day no more
than 20 inspections on light vehicles or 13 on heavy vehicles. If the vehicle passes the inspection,
a sticker is positioned on the inside of the front window. The information includes the next
inspection date.

The CNEH supervises the PTI stations in four different ways:

 Random audits on the equipment, building, staff and vehicles that were checked;
 Annual audits;
 Statistical checks on the numbers of vehicles processed;
 Independent audits by Veritas.

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To become a PTI inspector one needs a middle level technical education plus a special PTI
training. Every year the inspector needs to pass a proficiency training.

The percentage of vehicles that are not compliant (rejected after the first inspection) is 2.7%.
The amount of vehicles that are not compliant after repair is not known. Driving without a PTI
on public road is an offence and can lead to high fines and scrapping of the car.

The percentage of accidents caused by a mechanical failure is not known. According to rough -
estimates expressed during project meetings in Rabat approximately 10% of crashes are the
result of vehicle defects. Especially older cars (more than 12 years) are involved in accidents
(Ministere de L'Equipement et du Transport, 2012). In different European studies the average
contribution of vehicle defects to the cause of crashes is considered to be approximately 6%
(SWOV, 2012).

11.6 Road Users

Driving licences
The main partners in the execution of tasks in the driving licence chain are the centres
immatriculateurs (regional licensing authorities of which there are 63 where driving licences
are issued. They fall under the supervision of the DTRSR.

Training and examination

Any Moroccan or foreign nationals legally residing in Morocco can take the examination for
category B. The applicant must justify his physical and mental abilities by a medical certificate
and have a minimum age of 18 years. The candidate must submit an application before
undergoing training with a school certified by the METL. METL has a right to control the
functioning school. The review is supported by officials under the TEM.

The license is valid for 10 years and renewal is subject to a medical examination. Foreign
licenses are exchangeable subject to the existence of a recognition agreement between Morocco
and the issuing country.

There is system of ‘supervised driving’ (as known in Europe) in Morocco. After passing the
theoretical test, learners must have at least 3,000 kilometres’ driving experience and complete
at least 20 hours’ driving lessons at an accredited driving school, as well as take part in
educational meetings which must also be attended by the supervisor and official driving
instructor. When these conditions are met, the learner may apply for a practical examination.
The practical examination is carried out on a circuit (to test parking skills) and on a fixed part
on public roads (to test vehicle control, driver skills and rules of the road). There are plans to
carry out the test on public roads only.

If the learner passes, he or she is issued with a temporary driving licence which contains 24
penalty points. After two years the licence can be exchanged for a permanent licence at the
prefecture.

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Driving tests are administered by civil servants from the DTRSR. Driving schools are accredited
by the prefect. Their operations and the quality of training are supervised by the METL.

Driving licence documents

Driving licences are issued on a plastic card with a chip and a security system. The chip contains
dynamic information like the points of the driving licence. The driving licence is not an official
identification document. In 2013 306,692 new driving licences were issued.

Driving licences are valid for ten years. For renewal one must undergo a medical approval. The
conversion of foreign driving licences takes place at the prefectures at the departments, when
there is juridical bases in a treaty with the nation of origin.

Registration of driving licences

The central driving licence register, called Le Ficher National de Permis de Conduire, is also
maintained by the DTRSR. The information in the register covers the various driving licence
categories, the loss of driving licence points, and the reasons for suspension. A photograph is
part of the registration. The right of inspection is free of charge.

Registration of offences
A driving licence point system is being operated. Every experienced driving licence holder starts
with 30 points whereas inexperienced (new) drivers start with 20 points. Points are deducted
when offences are committed. The number of deductions every year is not known. The point
totals are recorded in the central database and on the driving license. The holder is informed of
a deduction in writing. If the holder commits no offences over a three -year period, any deducted
points are restored. To have points restored before that time, a driving licence holder can take
a driver education course for three days, at a cost of 700 Dirham. This option can be taken up
once every two years.

Driving licence holders can lose their licences in two ways, either by legal judgement or by
deduction of points. It is not known how many drivers lose their driving licence each year as a
result of suspensions or due to point deductions.

11.7 Post-crash Response

The country has relatively limited resources to deal with road crash victims. There are no
dedicated trauma teams for road crashes and these are dealt with as any other trauma patients
in hospitals which are equipped with special trauma units. Not all hospitals have these facilities
nor do all ambulance services have specialised and trained trauma team personnel.

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In 2012, there were more than 2,100 ambulances operational in Morocco of which 40%
belonged to the Ministry of Health. In 2012, the Ministry of Health published a plan for
improving post-crash care (Ministère de la Santé, 2012). Under the responsibility of the Ministry
of Health several improvements have and will be implemented for emergency medical care
including the care of traffic victims. These include:

 Construction of Trauma Centres are planned in the coming years dedicated to trauma with
specialised and trained trauma team personnel (the first construction is on-going in
Casablanca);
 In recent years, the ambulance fleet has been reinforced with new ambulances provided with
emergency and reanimation equipment;
 Emergency and Intensive Care Transportation land and air Services have been established;
 Emergency Care Training Centres have been established responsible for training in
emergency care gestures for all Emergency staff;
 New field of specialised nurses in emergency and intensive care have been established the
laureates of which are dedicated for emergency services including medical transportation;
 Institutes of ambulance technicians have been established delivering training of ambulance
technicians who, in addition to driving, deliver basic emergency care;
 Medical doctors specialised in trauma have been dispatched over the country in provincial,
regional and University hospitals,

The subject of medical service to traffic victims has also received considerable research interest
in Morocco. Several scientific regional studies of factors that influence the process and medical
outcomes of post-crash response have been performed (Mohammedia, 2010; Messnan, 2014;
Mohammed, 2013; Rhidifa, 2013; Kandri Rody, 2015).

11.8 Data Collection and Crash Reporting

Road crashes in Morocco are registered by the police and the Gendarme. According to officials
at the Roads and Road Traffic Department, the registration rate of crashes is high with almost
all crashes being recorded in the system. However, the exact rate is not known from the
literature nor from discussions. It is a well-known and well reported fact (Amoros, Martin &
Laumon, 2006; Elvik & Mysen, 1999; James, 1991) that road crashes are generally
underreported. Furthermore, there is a strong statistical relationship between the registration
rate and the degree of injury (the more serious the more likely it is registered). However, certain
categories of crashes are more affected than others (for instance a crash between two cyclists is
less likely to be registered than a crash between two vehicles). Also the location of crashes has
an influence, crashes occurring in remotely accessible areas are likely not to be registered by the
police and therefore making use of hospital records to derive more accurate estimates of actual
injury crashes is strongly recommended (Amoros, Martin & Laumon, 2006; James, 1991; Vis et
al., 2011). The practice of corroborating the police registered crashes with hospital registrations
is currently not carried out in Morocco.

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11.9 Conclusions and Recommendations

Road safety research and development
Overall, research, development and knowledge transfer on road safety matters take place on an
ad-hoc basis in Morocco. A dedicated road safety research programme, backed by sustainable
funding sources and carried out by dedicated research staff is currently not apparent. The
feasibility of establishing a dedicated road safety research institute as an independent entity or
as part of a future road safety agency needs to be further explored.

Road safety management

It is recommended to improve the data exchange cooperation between the different
stakeholders (like DTRSR, CNEH, CNPAC, CNER, Police and Gendarme) to increase road safety.
In various processes it was observed that the flow of information between the different
institutions was complex or non-existent.

Road safety inspections or systematic assessments from a road safety engineering perspective
are not routine. Inspections are generally carried out as part of pavement management and
maintenance programs but do not include specific road safety elements. Target setting based on
(safety performance) indicators is not included as part of the overall road safety improvement
plan nor are these monitored.

In addition to these more general points following list of activities (not exhaustive) is
recommended:
 Develop a comprehensive strategy based on harder targets, both in terms of crashes and
intermediate outcomes.
 Develop a critical offences monitoring strategy and program.
 Initiate studies for checking the crash registration rates.
 Develop systems to link hospital data with crash data to control for under-registration and
validate severity.
 Set targets and programmes for addressing high risk locations.
 Identify and secure funds to address high risk locations.
 Develop an integrated quality control system for road design (audit guidelines; courses etc.).
 Practical driving examination can be improved by testing drivers on a random route
containing normal traffic conditions instead of on a fixed route.

Enforcement
Certain critical offences in Morocco are monitored although these do not appear to be
systematically reported. The following offences are monitored based at locations identified from
crash data to be high risk locations:
 Speeding
 Seat belt wearing
 Helmet wearing (motorcycles)
 Red light violations, and
 Stop and yield sign violations.

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It is recommended that the current critical offences monitoring strategy and programme is
further developed and more systematically related to the enforcement methods and levels.

With regard to vehicle registration and enforcement it was observed that vehicle owners and
drivers seem to be able to find opportunities to escape their obligations like paying fines. As a
consequence enforcement measures are less efficient. The legal basis for improvement of the
cooperation between the various parties involved in the vehicle chain should be explored and
enforcement bodies should have online access to all relevant data, 24/7. It is recommended to:
investigate to what extent drivers and vehicle owners can avoid fines and other enforcing
measures; investigate to what extent this hinders enforcement; investigate possible
improvements such as tightening the legal basis for enforcement, improved data- exchange and
access to data for all authorities involved and/or improvement of the relevant registrations such
as connecting the registration of vehicle holders/owners and the central population register.

Technical vehicle details are difficult to verify without reliable sources such as for instance in
the Netherlands the RDW’s type approval database. Despite a legal base for PTI, many vehicles
do not seem to comply with the PTI requirements. It is recommended to benefit from the
international network to enhance the reliability of the technical and owner information of
vehicles that are offered for registration in Morocco.

Access to EUCARIS is recommended to explore, not only regarding road safety but also vehicle
crime EUCARIS is a network of vehicle registration authorities to exchange vehicle related data.
For instance when a vehicle is stolen or scrapped. Access for Morocco can help both Europe and
Morocco to fight vehicle and driver license crime. The conditions for Morocco are investigated.
Morocco must comply for instance with the European directives for privacy and data security.

Another recommendation is to improve the effectiveness of PTI. Currently, a high percentage of

non-compliant vehicles appear to be present. Even taxis that are under a strict regime often
appear to have malfunctioning head and taillights, worn tires, poorly aligned wheels and not
functioning seatbelts. Given the high number of older vehicles that are involved in accidents, it
is recommended intensifying the knowledge exchange between RDW and CNEH.

Heavily damaged vehicles that are repaired need special attention. The automated control of
damaged vehicles ensures that deformations of the vehicle were repaired according to the rules
of the art and are within the limits accepted by the manufacturer. Given the average vehicle age
and the quality level of repair, it can be investigated if such a control can at this stage, contribute
to road safety.

It is furthermore recommended to use clear national criteria for placing speed cameras and red
light cameras based on the number of accidents, fatalities and injuries. Before investing in
automated systems supporting legislation must be in place. Without proper legislation the
enforcement system will be challenged by appeals and lead to processing delays. In addition,
when using such equipment it is strongly recommended to use properly calibrated systems.
Otherwise the legal systems will be overloaded with appeals.

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Section 4: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

12 Conclusions and Recommendations

12.1 Introduction
This section presents conclusions from the previous sections, notably from the framework for
road safety (Section 1) on the one hand and the review of road safety in OIC member countries
(Section 2) and the three case studies (Section 3) on the other hand. These elements together
provide the basis for formulating recommendations, as illustrated in Figure 19.

Figure 19: Conclusions and recommendations

Framework for road safety Road safety in OIC member countries

 Road safety performance

 Safe systems approach
 Assessment of road safety management
 Road safety management: five pillars and
through desk and questionnaires
road safety data
 Case studies: Bangladesh, Cameroon,
 Lead road safety agency
Morocco
 Road safety development phases

Conclusions and recommendations

 General conclusions
 Specific conclusions and recommendations
per groups of OIC member countries

12.2 A framework for Road Safety Improvement

The WHO estimates that more than 1.2 million people die on the world’s roads annually. The
majority of these deaths occur on the roads of middle and low income countries and cost these
countries approximately 3% of GDP annually. Traffic crashes are preventable, yet they are still
one of leading causes of mortality in todays’ society.

The WHO (WHO, 2009) reveals that the annual number of fatalities worldwide seems to have
stabilised. However, this is primarily attributable to significant improvements in road safety
management in high income countries. Trends in middle and low income countries show a
different picture in which traffic mortality rates are disproportionately high and the number of
road traffic deaths are increasing. Low income countries have the highest traffic mortality rate
(24.1 deaths/100,000 inhabitants); almost three times that of high income countries (9.2
deaths/100,000 inhabitants).

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This is reflected in Figure 20 which indicates that over 90% of the road traffic deaths occurs in
low and middle income countries, which have only 48% of the world’s registered vehicles.
Expected growth in car ownership and motorisation in low and middle income countries in the
coming decades will continue to put pressure on road safety in the low and middle income
countries. Hence the need for action, as illustrated below.

Figure 20: Population, road traffic deaths, and registered motorized vehicles
Population Road traffic deaths Registered vehicles

8,5 9,2
15,6
36,7 41,9
38,7 52,1
49,6
47,8

HIC MIC LIC HIC MIC LIC HIC MIC LIC

Source: WHO, DoA for road safety, 2011-2020

Decade of Action
The UN launched its Decade of Action for Road Safety in over 100 countries in 2011. The ultimate
aim of the programme was to prevent five million road traffic deaths by 2020. The activities in
the Decade of Action are built on five road safety pillars:

1. Road Safety Management;

2. Safer Roads and Mobility;
3. Safer Vehicles;
4. Safer Road Users;
5. Post-crash Response.

Three of these pillars are traditional elements of the road traffic system (roads, vehicles, users)
and are usually treated separately, often applying the 3 E’s: education, enforcement and
engineering. The UN resolution encourages countries to implement integrated road safety
strategies targeting all five the pillars. These strategies should be developed taking into account
country specific requirements, resources and capabilities.

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Safe Systems Approach

In two of the safest countries in the world, Sweden and the Netherlands, it was realized that all
of the elements, as included in the five pillars, have to work together as a system. The Swedish
Vision Zero and Dutch Sustainable Safety were the inspiration for the internationally accepted
Safe Systems Approach. There is no Safe Systems blueprint; hence it is called the Safe Systems
Approach. The approach is universally applicable, but putting Safe Systems thinking into
practice requires local knowledge and consideration.

A framework for road safety is used in this project, based on the Safe Systems Approach and the
five defined road safety pillars. This framework is used for benchmarking road safety
management in the OIC member countries is conducted as a basis for developing strategic
directions and providing policy recommendations.

Road safety development phases

A clear relationship can be established between road safety initiatives and policies and the
longer term effects on road safety, as described in Chapter 5. This pattern shows a number of
road safety development phases, i.e. establishment, growth and maturity, as indicated in Figure
21. The curve indicates an increasing road safety problem, with growing number of road safety
casualties, due to rapid motorisation and an eventual reverse of the curve as a result of road
safety policy and measures. Almost all countries go through a similar phased road safety
development. As such, countries can learn from other countries that are in a similar
development phase or have proceeded to a next development phase. A country can focus on how
to best deal with the current situation, based on its current development phase, but also
anticipate on challenges ahead, linked to a next development phase.

Figure 21: Road safety development phases

Establishment Growth Maturity
Investment in road safety

Road safety casualties

Time

Typical road safety management characteristics have been developed per road safety
development phase for the five road safety pillars, as well as road safety data. These
characteristics are summarised in Table 277. These characteristics, as part of the framework for
road safety, are applied to the OIC member countries, as indicated below.

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Table 27: Road safety development phases and typical characteristics

Development Establishment Growth Consolidation
Phases
Road safety  No/limited political  Road safety growing  Well-developed
management will concern with political political support
 Limited interaction support.  Fair to high degree of
between stakeholders  Limited funding integrated
 Lack of coordination,  Treatment segregated coordination
no integrated  Limited coordination  Fair to adequate
approach  Limited local research funding
 Limited funding  Limited monitoring  Supporting legislative
 Weak legal framework evaluation regulatory framework
 Limited supporting  Fair legislative  Intergraded action
research framework programme
 No local research  Targeted research
Safer roads and  Underdeveloped road  Developing road  Developed road
mobility network network network
 Limited sized network  Varying design  Good public transport
 Poor road conditions standards facilities
 Lack of road  Fair road  Integrated planning
standards maintenance and development
 Limited capacity in  Limited attention for  Multimodal systems
road management vulnerable road users  Good quality facilities
 Limited attention for  Developing public
vulnerable road users transportation
facilities
Safer vehicles  Low car ownership  Growing car  Stabilised car
and low vehicle ownership ownership
mileage  High age of vehicles  Low age of vehicles
 Limited vehicle  Developing public  International vehicle
standards transportation standards applied
 High age of vehicles  Standard
 Limited roadworthy requirements for new
tests and existing vehicles
 Weak public  Good public
transportation transportation

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Development Establishment Growth Consolidation

Phases
Safer road users  Low quality drivers  Growing number of  Good quality drivers
 Limited road safety drivers  Low infringement
awareness (speeding,  Low seatbelt rate rate
helmets, alcohol, seat  Low adherence of  Penalty point driver
belts, child restraints) traffic laws licensing
 Limited effective road  Improving critical  High and visible
safety education offence rates enforcement
 Ad hoc enforcement  Increased  High compliance rates
aimed at income enforcement to critical offences
generation vs safety  Ad hoc education and  High awareness of
promotional road safety
campaigns  Well established
training and
educational programs
 Strict control for
licensing
Post-crash  Limited number of  Ambulances and  Adequate number of
response ambulances trauma centres in trauma centres and
 Limited trauma major urban areas personnel
centres  Reasonable levels of  High quality protocols
 No protocols on road training  Performance
crashes  Protocols available monitoring and
evaluation of targets
Road safety  Low quality crash data  Poor to reasonable  Moderate to high
data  No crash management quality crash data quality crash data
system  Limited controls and  Exposure data widely
 Poor registration and verification available
reporting  Locations generally  Location specific
 Inadequate system known  Enforcement data
protocols  Limited critical available
 Poor control checks offence and  Critical offences data
and balances enforcement data available
 Limited exposure data
 Poor location data
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

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12.3 Road Safety in OIC Member Countries

Road safety performance
A comparison has been made of road safety performance, measured in mortality rate (number
of road traffic deaths per population size), in OIC member countries and non-OIC member
countries. Mortality rates are then linked to economic development of the OIC member
countries, measured in income per capita, resulting in the classification of high income country
(HIC), middle income country (MIC) and low income country (LIC).

The OIC member countries show diversity in road safety performance, with mortality rates
ranging from 8.3 (Bahrein) to 32.1 (Iran). Regional differences exist, with mortality rate
averages of the OIC member countries in the African group of 24.5; the Arab group of 21.2 and
the Asian group of 16.1 Mortality rates in the OIC member countries are in general higher than
expected, based on comparison with other countries of similar income levels). As an indication,
the world average mortality rate 18.8 and the global average for MICs and LICS is 19.5 and 21.5
respectively.

As for road safety performance, the OIC member countries can be stratified into four groups:
1. HICs with much higher road mortality than average for HICs in general.
2. MICs with higher than average road mortality.
3. MICs with lower than average road mortality.
4. LICs with mortality that is high in an absolute sense.

Road safety management

This literature review revealed that member countries of the OIC generally are in the early
development stages of the Safe Systems Approach, as advocated by the Global Plan for the
Decade of Action. A number of countries in the Arab and Asian region have taken steps to
improve road safety management to the extent that they are now comparable to many other
international countries, which have adopted and practiced the Safe Systems Approach.
However, these countries have not as yet developed an integrated approach across all pillars
(including roads and mobility; vehicles; road users and post-crash care) sufficiently to be
considered as practising the fundamentals of a Safe Systems Approach.

Countries worth mentioning as seemingly to have advanced most in the direction of a Safe
Systems Approach are the United Arab Emirates and Kazakhstan and to a lesser extent Oman,
Turkey and Malaysia.

12.4 Road Safety Development Phases in OIC Member Countries

There is a general relationship between road safety performance and economic development,
as indicated in Chapter 6. Table 288 presents the economic development levels for the OIC
member countries. As can be seen, the majority of OIC member countries is in the category MIC,
followed by the category LIC. It should be noted that regional differences exist, i.e. the majority
of the OIC member countries in the African region are LIC, whereas the Arab region has a
relatively high number of HICs.

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Table 28: OIC member countries and economic development

Low Income Countries Medium Income Countries High Income countries
Afghanistan Albania Bahrain
Bangladesh Algeria Kuwait
Benin Azerbaijan Oman
Burkina Faso Cameroon Qatar
Chad Côte d’ Ivoire Saudi Arabia
Gambia Djibouti United Arab Emirates
Guinea Egypt
Guinea-Bissau Gabon
Mali Guyana
Mozambique Indonesia
Niger Iran Iraq
Sierra Leone Jordan
Somalia Kazakhstan
Tajikistan Kyrgyz Republic
Togo Lebanon
Uganda Libya
Malaysia
Maldives
Mauritania
Morocco
Nigeria
Pakistan
Senegal
Sudan
Suriname
Tunisia
Turkey
Turkmenistan
Uzbekistan
Yemen
Source: Ecorys and SWOV

All of the OIC member countries are in the establishment or growth phase, based on both the
relationship between road safety performance and economic development and the road safety
characteristics per road safety development phase, as established in Table 27713. Some OIC
member countries, notably the LICs and the countries that score low on the Safe Systems
Approach, as established in Chapter 7, are in the establishment phase. For example, Gambia and
Togo have high mortality rates and score relatively low on the five road safety pillars and
development and use of road safety data14.

13 As argues above, some OIC member countries have advanced well towards a Safe Systems Approach, but
given the fact that these countries have not yet developed an integrated approach across all pillars
sufficiently, the countries are not yet in the maturity phase.
14 The five road safety pillars are rated in Chapter 7, mainly based on information provided in the annual WHO
global status of road safety reports.

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A considerable number of OIC member countries, notably the middle and high income countries,
have developed towards the growth phase. This typically comes with a growing awareness for
road safety as a problem for society and emerging political support. A supporting legislative
framework is developing. However, funding is still sub-standard and coordination is limited. The
road network is developing, yet the quality of the road network is far from optimal, especially
on local and regional roads, also due to poor road maintenance. Car ownership is growing, and
so is the number of drivers, but the quality of the vehicles is relatively poor, also as a result of
the relatively high average age of the vehicles. Although enforcement is increasing, the
adherence of traffic laws is (still) low. Post-crash response is developing, with ambulances and
trauma centres becoming available in larger urban areas. Accident data is still underdeveloped
but improving in quality.

12.5 Recommendations towards Improving Road Safety

Starting point: know where you stand
This report concludes that a country faces specific challenges that are linked to road safety
development phases. Furthermore, typical policy measures are proposed that are effective in
the defined road safety development phases. At the same time it is acknowledged that no blue
print is available to solve road safety problems in a country and measures need to be tailored to
the needs and characteristics of a country. Therefore, it is important to know where a country
stands in terms of its road safety development phase, taking into account the country specifics,
to determine appropriate action.

Specific tools have been designed to assist countries in conducting road safety capacity reviews
and prepare follow-up road safety projects. For example, the World Bank has developed the
Road Safety Management Capacity Reviews and Safe System Projects Guidelines (Bliss & Green,
2009). The guidelines, which include checklists to conduct the road safety capacity review, will
provide useful guidance, including15:
 Specify a management and investment framework to overcome institutional capacity
barriers and support the successful implementation of road safety interventions;
 Provide practical procedures designed for application at a country level to accelerate
knowledge transfer and sustainably scale up investment to improve road safety results;
 Ensure that institutional strengthening initiatives are properly sequenced and adjusted to
the absorptive and learning capacity of the country concerned.

It is highly recommended to invest in a road safety capacity review, either using the above-
mentioned guidelines or other approaches. Although the procedures are extensive and generally
time consuming, thus costly, this should not be seen as a barrier to implementing a
comprehensive review, as the benefits can be substantial. The more specific the assessment is
made, the better actions towards improving road safety can be tailored.

15 According to the World Bank: http://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/transport/publication/road-safety-

management-capacity-review-guidelines.

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General recommendations: no regret actions

Most OIC member countries are in the establishment and growth phase. The current investment
into road safety is considered low by most standards and decision makers and politicians must
realise that substantial investment will be required in future if the country wants to reduce the
current economic burden of road crashes on the economy.

For all OIC member countries general road safety improvement measures can be found in the
following directions.
 Applying a Safe Systems Approach by developing a road transport system that accounts for
human error and the vulnerability of the human body and considering all the road safety
aspects, as reflected in the five road safety pillars, in an integrated way.
 A cohesive approach with clear tasks and responsibilities. Knowing the multi-disciplinary
character of road safety and the large number of stakeholders involved, it is important to
develop a cohesive approach, which can be reinforced by appointing a lead agency.
 Raising awareness for road safety. This is relevant throughout society, from politicians, having
to place road safety on the political agenda, to children, needed to be educated on road safety.
 Knowledge transfer and capacity building, leading to a knowledge base that is shared between
the various stakeholders involved in road safety.
 Sound understanding of road safety is crucial, which is reflected in research in the following
areas:
- Analysis of crash types and crash factors, as a basis for defining effective measures.
- Further analysis related to motorisation level and travel behaviour, as a basis for
understanding the context of road safety.

Specific groups of OIC member countries may benefit from the following approach.
 HICs, as defined in Table 28, might be able to deal with their problems when supplied with
sufficient adequate knowledge, regarding their specific road safety situation and adequate
best practices.
 The higher than average MIC group might gain from a specific approach where road and
transport infrastructure is improved, focussing on specific safety problems, notably
regarding pedestrians.
 Countries that still have to go through a motorisation growth, should focus on a policy
regarding vehicles (affordable and not too fast cars rather than powered two wheelers) and
to improve infrastructure in time. Paired with that is setting vehicle and driver standards and
ensuring that the enforcement and controls of these standards are put in place.
 LICs, as defined in Table 288, could benefit from focus on simple infrastructural measures,
e.g. by improving pedestrian safety.

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Specific recommendations: linked to road safety development phase

Each OIC member country can position itself in one of the road safety development phases. The
economic development of a country, measured in income per capacity, can be used as a starting
point for this. The typical road safety characterises, as defined in Table 277 can be used as an
additional means for positioning. The identified road safety development phase helps to define
relevant policy measures. It should be mentioned that countries can be in different phases per
road safety pillar. In this case it is recommended to focus on the policy measures that are linked
to the relevant development phase.

Below, policy measures are presented for OIC member countries in the establishment and the
growth phase16. Table 29 identifies policy measures per road safety pillar (as well as road safety
data) for the OIC member countries that are in the establishment phase.

Table 29: Policy measures for OIC member countries in the establishment phase
Road Safety Pillar Measures
Road safety  Garner political support for road safety
management  Improvement of poor to medium quality road safety information systems
 Development of co-ordination structures
 Assigning lead agency responsible for road safety management
 Development of coordination structures
 Development of policy review procedures
 Setting of short term targets and long term initiatives
 Develop and maintain specific delivery partnerships between
government, NGO, community and business at the central, regional and
local levels
Safer roads and  Develop road network categorisation plans
mobility  Develop appropriate functional and operational characteristics for road
types
 Setting of appropriate speed limits
 Encourages public transportation use
 Develops strategies and plans for vulnerable road users
 Secures funding for development projects
Safer vehicles  Establish vehicle registration registers
 Develop minimum standards for entry of vehicles on public roads
 Develop roadworthiness criteria and monitoring systems
 Develop enforcement strategies
 Set standards and regulations regarding the use of vehicles

16 No policy measures are included for the growth phase, as it was concluded that no OIC member countries
have advanced to the maturity phase. However, in case a country has advanced to the maturity level at a
pillar level, or if interested in measures at maturity level, one id kindly referred to Table 11.

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Road Safety Pillar Measures

Safer road users  Set the safety standards and rules and continuing compliance
requirements that will ensure the safety of the individual concerned but
also that of fellow road users
 Develop standards for driver licensing, testing and appraisal
 Driver offences monitoring
 Develop and implement educational programmes for school children
 Develop strategies to improve safety of vulnerable road users
Post-crash response  Review the capabilities and capacity of trauma response units
 Establish key performance data and set targets
 Develop monitoring systems
 Implement regional pilot projects
 Develop strategies to improve capacity and resource allocation for
trauma response and management
Road safety data  Establish central computerised transport and driver licensing registries
to manage data on the number of vehicles and drivers on the road which
are easily accessible for enforcement agencies
 Establish a reliable crash reporting and recording system
 Develop programmes to obtain supplementary data for road safety
management (traffic volumes; speeds; etc.)

For the OIC member countries that are in the growth phase recommended actions are presented
in Table 30.

Table 30: Policy measures for OIC member countries in the growth phase
Road Safety Pillar Measures
Road safety  Foster relationships to maintain political support for road safety
management  Development of medium to high quality management information system
 Coordination central levels
 Adopting short to medium term road safety targets
 Analysing what can be achieve in the medium term
 Develop and maintain specific delivery partnerships between
government, NGO, community and business at the central, regional and
local levels
Safer roads and  Implements large scale remedial road improvement projects
mobility  Implements strategic road network development plans
 Implements large scale improvement projects for vulnerable road users
 Adopts an integrated approach to road infrastructure planning and
provision
 Adopts a Safe Systems Approach to road design

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Road Safety Pillar Measures

Safer vehicles  Maintain and improve vehicle registration and licensing
 Vehicle roadworthiness
 Vehicle standards
 Traffic offence monitoring of roadworthiness
 Public transportation vehicle standards
 Commercial vehicle standards
Safer road users  Review and set the safety standards and rules for continuing road user
compliance.
 Driver licensing and testing
 Offences monitoring
 Targeted law enforcement and critical driver offences monitor
 Informed educational and publicity campaigns for improved road user
behaviours
 Securing legislative resources for road safety
Post-crash response  Emergency response goals and monitoring
 Fleet assessment
 Quality reviews emergency and trauma care
 Protocols and standards
 Funding for emergency and trauma care
Road safety data  Evaluate and improve crash registrations
 Develop supportive Safety Performance Indicators (SPIs)
 Establish central computerised transport and driver licensing registries
to manage data on the number of vehicles and drivers on the road which
are easily accessible for enforcement agencies
 Establish linkages between national causes of death statistics to assess
and validate traffic fatalities;
 Establish or adopt tools for local highway and police authorities to
undertake data collection, analysis and monitoring techniques and
database management.
 Report road safety results and progress made and make interactive crash
data systems available on the Internet.

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Mazharul Islam, M. & Al Hadhrami, A., Y, S. (2012). Increased Motorization and Road Traffic
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Md. Abdul Hamid (2013). Road Safety Situation in Bangladesh, Bangladesh Country Paper.
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Appendix 2: Checklist: Results Focus at Systems Level

Questions Yes Partial Pending No
Are estimates of the social costs of crashes available?
Are data on road deaths and injuries readily available?
Have the risks faced by road users been identified?
 Drivers?
 Passengers?
 Motor cyclists?
 Pedestrians?
 Cyclists?
 Children?
 Others?
Has a national vision for improved road safety performance
in the longer-term been officially set?
Have national and regional targets been set for improved
safety performance?
 Social cost targets?
 Final outcomes targets?
 Intermediate outcomes targets?
 Intervention output targets?
 At risk group targets?
 Industry targets?
 Other targets?
Have all agencies responsible for improved safety
performance been identified and are they formally held to
account for their performance required to achieve the desired
focus on results?
 Highways?
 Police?
 Transport?
 Planning?
 Justice?
 Health?
 Education?
 Others?
Have industry, community and business responsibilities for
improved roads safety performance been clearly defined to
achieve the desired focus on results?
Are regular performance reviews conducted to assess
progress and make improvements to achieve the desired
focus on results?
Has a lead agency been formally established to direct the
national road safety effort to achieve the desired focus on
results?
Is the lead agency role defined in legislation and/or policy
documents and annual performance agreements to achieve
the desired focus on results?
Source: Bliss, T. & Breen, J. (2009). Implementing the recommendations of the World Report on Road Traffic Injury
Prevention Country Guidelines for the conduct of road safety management capacity reviews and the specification
of Lead Agency reforms, Investment strategies and safe systems projects. World Bank Global Road Safety Facility,
Washington DC

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Notes:
It is important to probe the risks faced by different road user groups, assisted by available data
from highway agencies, police, hospitals and other sources. It is also important to locate and
rank those sections of the road network with the highest concentrations of deaths and injuries,
across the hierarchy of urban roads and the hierarchy of inter-urban roads. Where data are
deficient or simply unavailable extensive consultations with relevant groups may be required to
identify user groups most at risk and to locate hazardous sections of the network. The best
starting point for these discussions is within the health sector, particularly with the emergency
services staff that attend to crash victims in the pre-hospital phase.

The issue of acceptable and achievable levels of safety and related responsibilities and
accountabilities must be addressed at the highest agency and ministerial levels, especially across
the transport and health sectors. In this dialogue it is important to identify and discuss the scale
of the national health loss incurred by road crashes, compared to other causes of death and
injury in the country concerned.

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Appendix 3: Weighting Applied to Rate OIC Countries

Pillar/Function Weighting applied to response category (score per response type)
Safety management (Have 5x No = 1 (5 No answers = 1 point=very poor)
a lead agency performing
1x Yes = 1 (1 Yes answer=1 point = very poor)
the institutional
management functions) 2x Yes = 2 (2 Yes answers=2 points= poor)
3x Yes = 3 (3 Yes answer=3 points=average)
4x Yes = 4 (4 yes answer=4 points=good)
Fully funded and 4x Yes= 5 (Excellent)
Roads and mobility (have 5x No = 1
compliant standards etc.)
1x Yes = 1
2x Yes = 2
3x Yes = 3
4x Yes = 4
5x Yes = 5
Subnational = yes
Vehicles (have compliant 3x No = 1
standards and practices) 1x Yes = 2
2x Yes = 3
3x Yes = 4
More or the same as 50% 2-3wheeled motorized vehicles = -1
Less than 50% 2-3 wheeled motorized vehicles = +1
Road Users (have < 4 Laws = 1
compliant standards and
>,=4, <7 Laws = 2
practices)
7 Laws = 3
Apply and limits, < 50% yes = -1
Apply and limits, >,= 50% yes = +1
Mean enforcement < 6 = -1
Mean enforcement >,= 6 = +1
Post-crash care (have < 1x Yes = 1
compliant systems and
1x Yes = 2
standards)
2x Yes = 3
3x Yes = 4
Road safety data (have Trends in road traffic death available = +1
good registration and Deaths by road user category available = +1
current and historical and
Reported road traffic fatalities less than 80 % compared to the
good data)
estimated WHO road traffic fatalities = -1
Reported road traffic fatalities more or the same as 80% compared to
the estimated WHO road traffic fatalities = +1
Trends in road traffic death dotted line = -1
Trends in road traffic death solid line = +1

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Appendix 4: Desk Research Results on Selected OIC Member Countries

More detailed review of selected OIC member countries

A literature search was carried out for documentation describing road safety studies and
evaluations in all of the OIC member countries. The search was limited to documents focussing
on road safety studies and related to national road safety developments and trends. The search
focussed on primarily English documentation. Given the limited scope of this literature study,
this part of the study concentrated on two countries from each OIC region. For each country an
overview, based on the five pillars described in the UN’s Global Plan, on road safety was
prepared on the basis of available literature. The purpose of this was to provide a more detailed
benchmark of the state of road safety development in a country and supports the summaries
prepared in chapter 6.1. Although these country reports provide significantly more insight into
the state of road safety with respect to development in each of the pillars, it must be borne in
mind that these are based on a relatively small selection of English reports available on internet.
The content of these reports is fairly specific and not necessarily directed at the specific aims
and goals of the Pillars as outlined in the Global plan. The relationship between the findings of
the reports and the aims of the Global Plan are sometimes inferred and do not necessarily reveal
the true extent of development in a particular area of road safety. For this full capacity reviews
are necessary.

However, for the purpose of this literature study these country reports provide an example and
a basis of how to conduct cross-country benchmarking studies. The country reports should
where possible be based on capacity reviews and where this is not possible, relevant
documentation must be sourced that provides results and evidence of road safety developments
in a specific field (or Pillar). Such evidence must be supportive of actual implementation projects
and not be pure theoretical exercises (such as often described in policy and strategies). These
country reports can ultimately be used to score and rank the road safety performance of
individual countries as illustrated in chapter 6.1.

Arab Region

Road Safety in Morocco

Introduction
Morocco has a population of 33.8 million and a total land area of 710.850 square kilometres. In
2013, 3832 people were reported killed by road traffic accidents (World Health Organisation,
2015). However, this number might be an underestimation since not all fatalities are reported.
The WHO estimates 6870 road traffic fatalities for 2013, equivalent to a rate of 20.8 road
fatalities per 100.00 people which is slightly higher than the average of 20.1 for middle-income
countries (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

The World Health Organisation report of 2015 shows that there are around 3 million registered
vehicles in Morocco. Most of these vehicles are cars and other 4-wheeled light vehicles.

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Registered motorized 2- and 3-wheelers are very rare and only account for around 1% of the
total registered vehicles. On the other hand, registered heavy trucks account for approximately
25% of the total registered vehicles (World Health Organisation, 2015b) .

Road safety data

In case of a road crash, crash data are collected at the scene of the crash by the police. In rural
areas the Gendarme collects the data and in urban areas the national police are responsible. The
police are expected to attend crashes that involve fatalities or serious injuries. However, data is
not always recorded if the accident only results in material damage. In case of a fatal or serious
injury crash, information is collected at the scene. This information is filled in on a form similar
to that used in France. The information filled in on this form contains the circumstances of the
crash, the location, the casualties, etc. (OECD/ITF, 2016).

After the data is collected, it is then entered into a database. The police can stay in contact with
the hospitals to complete or adjust the reports of the accident. However, this is not systematic
and occurs incidentally (Schermers et al., 2015).

Road Crashes
Fatal road accidents occur more in rural areas than in urban areas according to the data of the
OECD and ITF. About two-third of the road traffic fatalities occur on rural roads. Speeding is a
common problem in rural areas, resulting in more fatal road accidents. While there are a lot of
speed limit signs at roads, not every road user feels responsible for maintaining this speed.

Occupants of cars and light vehicles account for 37%, the largest proportion, of crash fatalities.
Pedestrians account for 27% and riders of powered 2- and 3-wheeled vehicles for 20%
(Schermers et al., 2015). The situation for all road users has worsened between 1990 and 2013.
Especially the situation for motorcyclist has deteriorated, with a fatality rating that doubled. The
increase in the fatality rating of motorcyclist is probably caused by the sharp increase in the
motorcycle fleet in Morocco (OECD/ITF, 2016).

Road crashes cost Morocco an estimated 2.0% of its GDP. Trends in reported road traffic deaths
show that road traffic deaths stay about even through the years. Underreporting should be taken
into account when using data of reported trends (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

Pillar 1: Road safety management

In Morocco, the Ministry of Equipment and Transport and Logistics (METL) has the overall
responsibility for road transport. This includes the administration and regulation of road
transport. There are departments and agencies in Morocco that have an important role in the
organisation of road transport (Schermers et al., 2015).

The Roads and Road Traffic Department

The Roads and Road Traffic Department is responsible for road network planning and for the
design construction and maintenance of road infrastructure. The Roads and Road Traffic

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Department is also active in drafting of specifications and standards, funding, contracting,

monitoring and quality control. The Roads and Road Traffic Department applies various road
design standards, which have been developed for local conditions. These road design standards
were originally based on international standards. However, these standards have been adjusted
to fit the Moroccan situation.

Ministry of Equipment, Transport and Logistics, Department of Road Transportation Safety

(DTRSR)
The DTRSR is mainly in charge of road transportation safety in general and for the safety of
vehicles and drivers. This department administers vehicle permits, testing and registration. It is
also responsible for driver licensing and testing.

The Department of Studies, Planning and Coordination

This Department focuses and is responsible for the planning and development of the road
transport sector, for the coordination between various modes of transport in the country and
for the transportation information system.

While Morocco does have important departments that focus on the road safety system,
Morocco lacks the presence of a dedicated road safety research programme carried out by a
dedicated research staff and backed by sustainable funding sources. This is important to review
and research the data that is gathered (Schermers et al., 2015).

Pillar 2: Roads and mobility

Road conditions play an important part in road safety systems, with more than 70% of fatalities
and seriously injured casualties occur on rural roads. The road network of Morocco covers about
61.000 kilometres, of which 41.105 kilometres are asphalt surfaced. This road network
accommodates around 90% of the country’s mobility need and 75% of the transport of goods
requirements (Schermers et al., 2015). According to the Minestère de L’Equipement et du
Transport 2012, 9.816 kilometres of the asphalt roads are categorised as highways, 22.068
kilometres as provincial roads and 9.221 kilometres as regional roads. Of the 9.816 kilometres
of highways, about 800 kilometres consist of dual carriageways. On a daily basis around 88.500
million vehicle kilometres are travelled on the paved network of Morocco. Of the total amount
of vehicle kilometres that are travelled on the paved network, around 67% are travelled on
highways, 18% on regional roads and 14% on provincial roads (Schermers et al., 2015).

Road conditions do vary by season. During periods of heavy rainfall, road sections can wash
away and create large pot holes. Heavy rainfall also contributes to less visibility and especially
make road markings less visible. Roadways in mountainous areas can get closed in wintertime
due to heavy snow (OSAC Country Council Information, 2014b).

The Directorate of Road Transport and Road Safety (DTRSR) is responsible for the management
of road safety. This department recently applied safety measures to improve road safety. They
improved the Infrastructure with identification and elimination of so called ‘blackspots’, the

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installation of protective barriers and the construction of bicycle paths. These safety measures
are likely to contribute to better road safety (OECD/ITF, 2016).

Pillar 3: Vehicles
The lack of applied vehicle standards results in unsafe and non-standard vehicles using public
roads. Vehicles in Morocco are relatively old. It is estimated by the SWOV that 75% of the vehicle
fleet are 10 years and older. Many cars and trucks are poorly maintained and especially the
trucks are often overloaded. It is common to see trucks overturned or broken down along
highways (OSAC Country Council Information, 2014b).

In Morocco, commercial vehicles and taxis have an annual inspection and buses are inspected
every six months. For passenger cars these annual technical inspections are compulsory after
five years. It is not known what percentage of crashes is caused by a mechanical failure. In Rabat
approximately 10% of crashes are the result of vehicle defects. Older cars that are more than 12
years old are more often involved in crashes than newer cars (Schermers et al., 2015).

Pillar 4: Road users

More than half of the fatalities are represented by vulnerable road users such as pedestrians,
cyclists and motorcyclists. Pedestrians are the main victims of traffic crashes followed by car
occupants and motorcyclists. According to the OECD and ITF people between the age of 25 and
64 over-represent the number of road fatalities. This is the economically active segment of the
population and could be related to higher exposure and more travel. Being more on the road in
certain traffic peaks increases the chance of a road accident.

In Morocco it is forbidden to drive under the influence of (illicit) drugs. However, this measure
is not yet enforced. While Morocco is predominately a Muslim country, alcohol is still available
for purchase and consumption in many cities and places across Morocco. In 2013, alcohol use
was cited as a contributing factor in 2.3% of all road crashes. National drink-driving laws have
been developed and adopted (OECD/ITF, 2016).

Pillar 5: Post-crash response

Morocco does have an emergency telephone number but lacks emergency room injury
surveillance systems (World Health Organisation, 2015b). Recently the ambulance fleet of
Morocco was modernised and improved together with the creation of the emergency medical
rescue system (SAMU) and the mobile medical emergency services (SMUR) created in regional
hospital centres (OECD/ITF, 2016).

Road Safety in Oman

Introduction
Oman has a total land area of 309.500 square kilometres, a population of around 3.6 million
people and approximately 1.1 million registered vehicles. The country has a serious road safety
problem with approximately 913 road traffic fatalities reported in 2013. Based on World Health
Organization (WHO) estimates the mortality rate in Oman is equivalent to a rate of 25,4 road

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fatalities per 100.000 people, which is quite high compared to other countries (World Health
Organisation, 2015b).

The vehicle population in Oman comprises primarily 4-wheeled light vehicles (84%) with the
rest of the vehicles being buses, trucks and motorised 2 and 3-wheelers. Compared to other
Islamic countries in Asia and Africa, Oman has a very low percentage (0,5%) of registered
motorized 2- and 3-wheelers (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

The Sultanate of Oman is an oil rich Arabian Gulf country. The abundance of oil and gas and the
high oil prices changed the economy and life style of the people of Arabian Gulf countries,
including Oman, as the GDP and the per capita income grew rapidly grew. With a gross per capita
national income of 25,150 US dollars (Mazharul Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012; World Health
Organisation, 2015b), the country is considered a high income country by the WHO.

Road safety data

The Royal Oman Police is the sole authority responsible for recording, analysing and publishing
data related to traffic accidents in Oman. However, like in most countries, not all crashes are
reported and it is likely that the actual numbers of crashes are higher than reported by the Royal
Oman Police. A lot of minor accidents cases are settled by the parties mutually at the scene so
no report is made (Mazharul Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012).

In 2013 the Research Council completed the road accidents database, which was in collaboration
with the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL, UK). The database contains data over a period of
five years and will provide statistics and information on road accidents. Data regarding the
causes of traffic deaths, which is gathered from the hospitals, is also critical in reducing death
and injury. Once the data is operational and validated, countermeasures can be developed and
evaluated.

Pillar 1: Road safety management

Road safety still is a concern in Oman and the Sultanate of Oman is committed to reduce road
fatalities by 25% by 2020. To achieve this and to address the road safety problem in the country,
a Research Council was created as part of its road safety strategy. The Council encourages
researching all areas of road safety in the country. The road safety research program is a
collaborative effort between The Research Council and the Royal Oman Police. The main
objective of the program is to promote scientific research and to build national research capacity
in road safety as well as to support decision makers through conducting different activities
outlined by the program. A steering committee has been formed to ensure that research is of
high scientific quality and that the research proposals determine the research priority areas.

The national seat-belt laws have recently been revised to be applicable to both drivers and
passengers of 4 wheeled motorized vehicles. There is also a new national child restraint law and
mobile phone law while driving, addressing critical gaps in legislation.

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Pillar 2: Roads and mobility

Urbanisation in Oman occurred rapidly in the 21st century, changing the distribution of the
population with intensive migration from remote rural areas to more developed urban areas
(Plankermann, 2013). This has placed urban infrastructure under intense pressure, particularly
transport infrastructure. Overall road construction programs have increased in the last twenty
years. This resulted in an increase of paved roads by more than 25.000 kilometres (Mazharul
Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012). Most of the major urban roads are now dual carriage roads, well
equipped with signals, traffic signs and also lighting. However, travel between cities, especially
at night, may be dangerous because of poor/no lightning, wandering livestock, pedestrians
crossing highways, slow moving cargo vehicles and speeding drivers (OSAC Country Council
Information, 2014c).

The study of Siham Gaber Farag of 2014 shows the distribution of injury and non-injury crashes
over the months in 2010 vary throughout the year. The high number of crashes between July
and September can be caused by the tourist season and monsoons. This period of intense rainfall
can wash out roadways and make road markings less visible (OSAC Country Council
Information, 2014c; Plankermann, 2013; Siham Gaber Farag, Ibrahim H. Hashim & El-Hamrawy.,
2014).

Most of the accidents happen during the day between 9.00 and 16.00 and 17.00 and 20.00,
typical for peak hours with people travelling to and from work. Thursday, which is weekday
holiday in Oman, has the highest frequency of crashes. This has to do with people visiting family
and friends, the abundance of private cars and the overloading of the road network which often
leads to fatal accidents (Mazharul Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012).

Pillar 3: Vehicles
According to the WHO there are no vehicle standards applied to vehicles using public roads in
Oman (World Health Organisation, 2015b). There are no legislated frontal impact standards,
electronic stability control and pedestrian protection standards in force. However, periodic
vehicle maintenance is mandatory in Oman and vehicles must meet local standards.

The study of M. Mazharul Islam et al. indicates that over the period 2000 to 2009, the population
of Oman increased by about 2,0% per annum, while the automobile fleet in the country
increased by 4,3% per annum. Over the same period, the registration of new motorised vehicles
increased by 10% per annum. The increase in private cars and shared private taxi services is
caused by the unavailability of a good railway network, water-ways or bus services. Thus, the
excessive dependence on private cars leads to heavy traffic, a large number of accidents,
degradation of urban environment and high individual expenditure on transport.

Private cars are involved in 77% of all road crashes according to Siham Gaber Farag. However,
since motorized 4-wheeled vehicles account for 84% of the total vehicle fleet (WHO report
2015), it is no coincidence that private cars are involved in most road accidents.

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Pillar 4: Road users

Economic growth and the rapid increase in income levels has impacted vehicle ownership levels
and contributed to a rapid growth of motorised vehicles in the country. However, increased
vehicle ownership and use has not been adequately supported by proper education and
awareness campaigns about the traffic risks and consequences of traffic accidents and this is
reflected in the growing road safety problem.

Young drivers are over-represented in crashes in Oman, with 70% of the crashes involving
drivers aged from 17 to 36 years whilst they represent roughly 45% of the population. To
improve the road safety in Oman it is crucial to understand the young novice driver’s risky
driving behaviour and risk perceptions (Mazharul Islam & Al Hadhrami, 2012). Speeding is a
major contributing factor.

Pillar 5: Post-crash response

For the patient’s survival the time between injury and initial stabilization is an important factor.
To minimize road accident fatalities, prompt emergency assistance and efficient trauma care
management are of great importance. Oman does have an emergency telephone number and
emergency room injury surveillance systems with qualified personnel.

Asian Region

Road Safety in Indonesia

Introduction
Road safety is a very serious problem in Indonesia. In 2013, 26,416 road traffic fatalities were
reported and is showing signs of declining when compared to 2011 and 2012. However, these
are registered fatalities and crashes.

Given the population of Indonesia, this gives a mortality rate of 15.3 road fatalities per 100,000
people (WHO 2015). This is an increase when compared to the rate that was documented in
2010 (12.1 fatalities per 100,000 people). However, the WHO considers these figures to be an
underestimate as traffic crashes are underreported, data are inconsistent and difficult to verify
(Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, 2010; World Health Organisation, 2015b) .

Indonesia comprises a geographic area of 1,919,317 km2 with a population of around 250
million people and about 104 million registered vehicles in 2013. Of the motorised vehicles
about eighty three percent are motorised 2- and 3-wheelers and the rest are vehicles of different
categories such as cars, jeeps, buses, trucks etc. (Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, 2010).

The World Health Organization report of 2015 mentions that there is an estimated GDP loss of
2.9% to 3.1% due to road traffic crashes. The data also shows that 58 percent of the traffic
related deaths are among vulnerable road users: e.g. pedestrians (21%), cyclist (2%) and riders
of motorised 2- or 3-wheelers (36%). It is important to note that 35 percent all traffic fatalities
are registered as occupants or drivers of buses (Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, 2010).

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Road Safety Data

To get a better insight in the road safety, organised data is very important. Indonesia has a new
data system named the IRSMS Accident Information System. IRSMS is designed to provide valid,
reliable and verified data for road accidents in Indonesia. Access to comprehensive, reliable and
accurate road accident data makes it possible to identify specific roads, vehicles and road users
which need to be targeted with road safety interventions (M. Naufal Yahya et al., 2013).

At present, data is collected by police filling in a notebook entry or a paper accident report form
at the accident site. This information is later entered in the database at the police station. The
information that is entered is mostly the location of the accident, geographical coordinates,
name of the road, photographic evidence and recordings of witness statements. Additional
documents can also be attached to the accident record. Output from the system is designed to
serve for prosecution, investigation, planning and accident analysis purposes. Thus, it is very
important for the police to be present at the accident site to gather the actual data.

Pillar 1: Road safety management

Indonesia plans to reduce the traffic fatalities to less than 13,200 deaths by the end of 2020. A
five-year program of action was established with assistance from the World Bank, the AusAID-
funded Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, the Asian Development Bank, and other stakeholders
(Arwar, 2014). A particular priority is for road safety partnership actions among stakeholders
to improve capacity by strengthening coordination and management of road safety. There are
some programs that have a high priority since the demand is great (M. Naufal Yahya et al., 2013).
These programs include:
 The improvement of traffic education for children and the improvement of the system for
issuing driver licenses.
 Testing new traffic police actions, including speed enforcement and the drunk driving / drug
driving enforcement.
 Studies of locations with a high number of crashes to have a better insight in making
decisions regarding road safety engineering.
 Improvement of the traffic accident data recording system and improving the quality of
traffic accident investigations.

The Indonesian National Police has an independent agency called the Indonesian National
Traffic Police Corps. This police corps is tasked with addressing and enforcing road safety in
Indonesia. While there is training capability at the Police Academy in Semarang and at the Traffic
Education Centre near Jakarta, operational traffic policing capability can be improved to detect,
containing and reducing illegal road behaviours and to change inappropriate or risky
behaviours (M. Naufal Yahya et al., 2013).

The Government of Indonesia drafted the National General Plan for Traffic and Road
Transportation Safety and released it on 11 May 2011. This general plan reflects the goals
outlined for the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety and incorporates the five pillars listed in
the Decade of Action There are a number of activities envisaged and undertaken under the Road

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Safety Management Pillar. The establishment of Law 22/2009 has been an important activity.
This law is generally for the Indonesian National Traffic Police Corps (INTPC). Under the law,
the INTPC is charged with the responsibility for road traffic and transport safety (M. Naufal
Yahya et al., 2013).

Furthermore, the inclusion of the Provincial and Regency/City Governments in the law, is an
important step ensuring that all levels of the government take an active role in road safety.
Another major role for the Indonesian Government is to target the business sector and civil
society to take more responsibility for remedial measures to improve road safety and to
promote road safety information. Bringing leaders in Indonesian society, such as imams and
other religious leaders, into the campaign on road safety can be a very efficient way of creating
road safety awareness.

Pillar 2: Roads and mobility

Road conditions are an important factor for the road safety in Indonesia. The road environment
can influence traffic accident probability according to the data given by the Ministry of
Transportation. There are certain environmental factors that influence road safety. The traffic
flow on the roads has a strong effect on the speed of road users. The traffic flow depends on the
vehicle types, speed limit and the road quality. The weather is also an important factor on the
road safety. Indonesia experiences extremely wet days and there can be a lot of dense fog. These
factors directly affect the road users and the (unpaved) roads (Arwar, 2014).

Two of the most critical failings at roadwork sites in Indonesia is the failure to use any advance
(road works) warning signs to warn approaching drivers of the workers ahead, and a lack of
adequate demarcation signs and markings to protect road workers at the work zone. Some of
these signs are only placed one meter away from the workers.

Another safety concern is the lack of sealed road shoulders along Indonesian roads. Most of the
roads have unsealed shoulders and have deep drop offs from the road pavement. Sometimes
these drop offs can have a depth of twenty centimetres, putting road users in great danger.
Particularly motorcyclists are prone to crashes should they suddenly have to leave the road in
order to avoid other road hazards such as oncoming trucks or buses, or potholes(Indonesia
Infrastructure Initiative, 2010) .

Road conditions in Indonesia are far from ideal. For road safety development there are two types
of treatments: short term and long term countermeasures. On the one hand, the short term
countermeasures are low cost improvements which can be carried out immediately and have
direct impact. These countermeasures include routine maintenance (e.g. cutting the vegetation
which obstructs sight distance, covering ditches, removing roadside hazards, patching potholes,
etc.), installation of proper safety devices (e.g. markings, crash barriers, etc.). Funding would not
be a major problem since these countermeasures are low-cost. However, creating the awareness
to perform such improvements by road authorities is the real challenge. On the other hand, the
long term countermeasures, such as realignment of the road, planning new infrastructure and

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capacity building, require appropriate planning, funding and willingness of the road authorities
(Ecorys, 2011).

Pillar 3: Vehicles
Like many Asian countries, Indonesia has a large population of 2- and 3-wheel vehicles. Some
83% of all registered vehicles in 2013 were motorized 2- and 3-wheelers. Motorized 2-and 3-
wheelers offer little or no protection to riders and passengers and the risk of serious injury in
the event of crashes is high. The use of non-standard and unsafe vehicles contributes to a high
number of accidents. Over involvement of buses and trucks are the main factors of accidents
with buses and trucks. The main reasons that there are a lot of non-standard and unsafe vehicles
in use is that there are no applied vehicle standards (Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, 2010).
There are no frontal impact standards, electronic stability control and pedestrian protection
empowered.

Vehicles with faulty brakes are a common cause for traffic crashes marked with “severe injury”.
While faulty brakes are a common cause for fatal traffic accidents, ignoring warning lights of the
vehicle (e.g. tyre pressure, engine oil level and temperature warning) also contributes to traffic
accidents. Some people ignore these warning and indication light because they think they are
probably malfunctions (Arwar, 2014). Every vehicle is supposed to have a proper certification,
given by the local transportation agency, before going on the road. The risk of having an accident
is quite high, so law enforcement needs to set strict rules for lawbreakers (Arwar, 2014;
Indonesia Infrastructure Initiative, 2010).

Pillar 4: Road users

The majority of traffic fatalities are registered among bus drivers and passengers (35%), riders
of motorised 2- or 3-wheelers (36%) and pedestrians (21%) (World Health Organisation,
2015b). Data from Indonesia shows an increase in the number of vehicles, and an increase in the
number of crashes. Young people (10-24 yr.) and people of productive ages (25-50 yr.) account
for a large proportion of accidents. A majority of accidents affect individuals who ride
motorbikes and make use of the public transport. Traffic accidents can also reflected in an
increase in the number of poor people, especially those widowed or without a family
breadwinner (Arwar, 2014).

Human factors such as carelessness, fatigue, lack of skill, drunkenness, speeding, proximity to
other drivers and jaywalking, have become predominant factors in road crashes. This suggests
that public awareness of traffic is needed, especially for people in their productive ages. A large
number of motorcycle drivers are using their motorcycles either without having or carrying a
driving license (Arwar, 2014).

Post-crash response
The time between injury and initial stabilisation is an important factor in the patient’s survival
chance. Thus, prompt emergency assistance and efficient trauma care management are clearly
important in minimizing the road accident deaths. Indonesia does have multiple emergency

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telephone numbers and a few basic emergency care centres at hospitals. However, these
emergency care centres are only located at hospitals in urban areas. The lowest level of
emergency care is found in the rural areas, where most facilities are community-based and
provide only service for primary health care.

African Region

Road Safety in Cameroon

Introduction
Cameroon, a country having a total land area of 472,710 square kilometres and a population of
around 22 million faces a serious road safety problem. In the year of 2013 approximately 1,095
road traffic fatalities were reported (World Health Organisation, 2015b). The total road traffic
fatalities might be higher since not all fatalities are reported. The World Health Organization
estimated 6,136 road traffic fatalities for 2013, equivalent to a rate of 27.6 road fatalities per
100,000 people and significantly higher than countries with comparable income levels.

No recent data is available of the total registered vehicles in Cameroon. However, the WHO
report of 2010 mentions that Cameroon has about 443,018 registered vehicles in 2010
indicating a relatively low rate of vehicle ownership. Of the motorized vehicles about forty five
percent are cars and fifty percent are motorized 2- and 3-wheelers. The rest of the total
registered vehicles are heavy trucks, buses and other motorized vehicles.

The World Health Organization report estimates that road crashes cost the country
approximately 1% of its GDP. The data also shows that the reported road traffic deaths stays
relatively constant over the years. However, this might not be realistic since the crash
registration is very poor and unreliable.

Road safety data

In Cameroon, motorcycles and automobile occupants share more or less the same amount of
road users, while pedestrians account for 34% of the total amount of road users. Like more
African countries the working age group (15-45 years) are involved in more crashes with
motorized vehicles than other age groups. This probably has to do with the vast amount of usage
of motorised vehicles on working days.

Pillar 1: Road safety management

A large percentage of the population has not received any formal driver training. Many drivers’
licenses are can be easily obtained and are not always legally valid.

The main problems for the enforcement of laws in Cameroon are the numerous individual
operators, ambiguous laws and lack of transparency in the administration of penalties. Another
major problem in Cameroon is that financial penalties are often inadequate deterrents. Fines for
offences, such as excessive speed, license infringements, or operation of un-roadworthy vehicles

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are often regarded as normal operating expenses by drivers. This is a result that the penalties
are not severe enough to dissuade traffic infringements (Minang, 2014).

Pillar 2: Roads and mobility

Most of the maintenance activities are poorly planned and ineffective in optimizing the life cycle
of road assets. As a result the ineffective maintenance has led to poorly maintained roads. Traffic
volumes are generally low when compared to other middle income countries. Traffic over the
paved network is only 1,099 vehicles per day, against 2,558 in other middle-income countries.
The primary paved road network shows some king of over-engineering with fewer than 300
vehicles per day making use of it. However, the traffic volumes on the unpaved roads justifies
the paving of the road network. Around 36 percent of the unpaved road network in Cameroon
carries more than 300 vehicles per day (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011). The poor condition
of the road network prohibits the easy movement of goods and this is a major barrier for
connecting manufactures and consumers with international markets. This makes Cameroon one
of the least efficient countries when it comes to transportation.

Pedestrians and livestock share the same roads as the motorised vehicles resulting in a constant
road hazard, especially at night. Large logging trucks, as well as other vehicles, travel the roads
after dark. Often these vehicles travel without lights and are frequently broken on the side of the
road or even on the road. With barely any road signs and no road lightning, roads in Cameroon
are dangerous at night. Some parts of the road network in Cameroon contribute to a lot of traffic
accidents. Especially the more complex parts in the road network are prone to a lot of traffic
accidents. One of these parts is the Douala-Yaounde-Bafoussam-Douala triangular road
network. This part of the road network contributes to an average of 100 registered deaths per
month according to the Cameroon Road Safety Foundation (Minang, 2014).

Like a lot of other central African countries, motorised traffic increases during festive and
seasonal periods. According to the Bafia Mobile Gendarmerie Road Safety Unit, road traffic
volumes increase especially during August and December, as do the number of road crashes.
The untarred roads in Cameroon also results in accidents that are caused by the dry and wet
season. During the dry season, road users grapple with excessive dust which causes visibility
problems. In the rainy season road users are sometimes forced to use the wrong lane of the road
because of mud or potholes (CONSIA Consultants, 2013; OSAC Country Council Information,
2014a)

Pillar 3: Vehicles
Vehicles in Cameroon require no inspection for roadworthiness and there are no known applied
vehicle standards. This is one of the primary reasons that there are a lot of non-standard and
unsafe vehicles in use. The use of the poorly maintained vehicles contributes to a high number
of accidents (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

Trucks in Cameroon are poorly maintained. Second-hand trucks are typically overloaded and
travel at excessive speed to obtain maximum revenue from their restricted usage. The

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overloaded and poorly maintained trucks are prone to roll-over crashes and are a constant
threat to other road users (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011) .

Pillar 4: Road users

In Cameroon, males are at an increased risk of road traffic accidents compared to females (Jolion
McGreevy et al., 2014). Drinking and driving are a major problem after dark. Social activities and
several religious activities take place in the weekend leading to an enormous pressure on the
roads and often resulting in fatal crashes. Most youths have limited driving experience and in
the weekends they often drive at night and can be drunk while driving. Commercial drivers often
disregard traffic safety when they try to recoup weekend expenses and therefore overload
passengers and increase speed to complete more trips.

Human error such as fatigue, lack of skill, drunkenness, speeding and carelessness are major
factors for traffic crashes (Dominguez-Torres & Foster, 2011). There is an evident need for
public awareness of traffic and safe driving. Thus, the government of Cameroon has launched
intense road safety campaigns, strengthened enforcement strategies, driving school
standardisation programs and introduced medical exams for commercial drivers (CONSIA
Consultants, 2013).

Pillar 5: Post-crash response

The number of fatalities among vulnerable road users in Cameroon is probably far higher than
registered. It is likely that vulnerable road users who die at the scene are transported to the
morgue rather than the hospital. This suggest that the number of deaths observed in the hospital
(on which the registration data is based) are underestimated (Jolion McGreevy et al., 2014).

The time between injury and initial stabilisation is an important factor in the patient’s survival
(the so called golden hour). Prompt emergency assistance and efficient trauma care
management are clearly important in minimising the injury consequences resulting from
crashes. Cameroon does have multiple emergency telephone numbers but lacks emergency
room injury surveillance systems (OSAC Country Council Information, 2014a).

Reports of road crashes are channelled mainly through several informal and unstructured
media. Currently, only one toll free emergency line is designated for crash/incident reporting.
The location of the crash is then directed to a FRSC (Federal Road Safety Corps) patrol vehicle
that is nearest to the crash scene. The data is collected by people of the FRSC filling in a notebook
entry or the paper accident report form at the accident site (Minang, 2014).

Road Safety in Nigeria

Introduction
Nigeria has a total land area of 910,771km2 and a population of around 174 million people. In
2013 approximately 6,450 road traffic fatalities were reported. However, this number is likely
to be an underestimate as not all traffic accidents are reported. The World Health Organization

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estimated 35,641 road traffic fatalities for 2013, given the population this is equivalent to a
mortality rate of 20,5 road fatalities per 100,000 people (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

In 2013 Nigeria had about 5,791,446 registered vehicles. Of the motorized vehicles about 56
percent are cars and 4-wheeled light vehicles and 44 percent are motorised 2 and 3-wheelers.
The number of buses and HGV were not reported in the WHO report (World Health Organisation,
2015b).

The World Health Organization report of 2015 estimated that road crashes cost the country an
equivalent of 3% of its GDP. The WHO data also show that there appears to be an increase in
reported road traffic deaths. This trend might be explained due to a better road fatality reporting
system, an increase in the total amount of traffic deaths or both. It is important to notice that
there is no data available for deaths by road user category.

Pillar 1: Road safety management

Nigeria plans to reduce traffic fatalities irrespective of projected increases in traffic
volume(Federal Road Safety Corps, 2014) . The World Bank will assist Nigeria in providing
manpower and operational equipment to conduct a road safety assessment on six major
corridors. The results of the assessment have led to the establishment of sixteen additional
Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Command Units but, most significantly, to a consistent
decline, between 2011 and 2013, in road fatalities despite increased motorisation on the
corridors, as detailed in the table below:

A five-year action program, the Nigeria Road Safety Strategy (NRSS), was established. This
strategy will focus on decreasing the current road traffic crash fatality by 50% in 2016. To
achieve this goal the following strategies have been formulated (Sumaila, 2013):
 To establish a cohesive and efficient road safety system.
 To provide road infrastructure that accommodates the needs of all road users.
 To ensure all vehicles on Nigerian roads meet defined standards.
 To instill a culture of personal responsibility for safe road use.
 To deliver prompt and effective response to road crashes.

One of the most important stakeholder organisation is the Arrive Alive Road Safety Initiative.
The goal of this initiative is the prevention of the high rates of motor vehicle crashes and
fatalities in Nigeria. The intervention plan was developed based on education/awareness, safety
enforcement, advocacy/legislation and road improvement. The initiative is mainly active in the
more populated parts of the country and focuses on driving under the influence, motorcycle
safety, speeding, child passenger safety, pedestrian safety, truck safety and distractive driving.

The main problems for law enforcement in Nigeria are the numerous individual operators (e.g.
organized transport, private companies, federal and local government institutions), ambiguous
laws and lack of transparency in the administration of penalties. Another major problem in
Nigeria is that financial penalties are often inadequate deterrents.

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Fines for offences such as excessive speed, license infringements, or operation of un-roadworthy
vehicles are often regarded as normal operating expenses by drivers. Most drivers prepare for
such fines by setting funds aside at the start of operations to sort their encounters with road
safety officials. This is a result that the penalties are not severe enough to dissuade traffic
infringements (Sumaila, 2013).

Pillar 2: Roads and mobility

In 2011, Nigeria had an estimated road network comprising a length of about 194.000
kilometres, the second longest network in Africa (Sumaila et al., 2013). Given the relatively large
geographic area, the road network is relatively sparse. With a large population of people and
relatively high car ownership (7,6 million vehicles) this results in intense traffic pressure on the
road network in Nigeria (Sumaila, 2013; Ukoji, 2014).

The urbanisation of Nigeria has taken a significant impact on fatal road crashes. The fast growing
cities and the high rate of rural-urban migration increased the pressure on urban infrastructure,
particularly transportation. Large metropolitan areas (e.g. Lagos, Kano, Ibadan, Kaduna etc.)
face new problems that are typical to cities facing increasing traffic demand and congestion. The
general impatience and ill-tempered nature of road users and conflicts between pedestrians and
other road users also contribute to a high number of crashes (Ukoji, 2014).

There are particular months where the number of traffic fatalities are significant higher than
other months. Compared to other months, December, March, July and April have the highest
number of traffic fatalities. . This mainly has to do with festive and seasonal periods in these
months. For example Christians celebrate Christmas in December and Easter in April or March.
Within these period people travel a lot to celebrate with their family (Federal Road Safety Corps,
2013; Ukoji, 2014)

The high number of traffic fatalities in July is affected by the rainy season, when road markings
are less visible, bridges collapse, trees fall and rivers flood. Other environmental factors include
Harmattan winds, sun reflection, heavy winds, pot holes and unsurfaced roads (Ukoji, 2014).

The government’s inability to appropriately budget and monitor road construction and
maintenance contributes to fatal crashes. Criminal networks have also taken advantage of poor
road conditions on certain highways to set ambushes to rob travellers, causing fatal car
accidents in the process (Ukoji, 2014).

Pillar 3: Vehicles
The use of non-standard and unsafe vehicles contributes to the high number of crashes in the
country. The main reason that there are a lot of non-standard and unsafe vehicles in use is that
there are no applied vehicle standards (World Health Organisation, 2015b).

The study of Ukoji 2014 shows that between June 2006 and May 2014, cars, buses and
lorries/trucks are involved in more recorded road crashes than the other vehicle types.

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Transportation with tankers and trailers has increased since the discovery of oil in Nigeria.
Between 2007 and June 2010, a total of 4.017 tanker/trailer crashes were recorded on Nigerian
roads, resulting in 4.076 persons being killed in crashes involving petrol tankers. Commercial
vehicle owners task their drivers to generate more profit, therefore the drivers tend to drive as
fast as possible in poorly maintained vehicles resulting in more accidents (Ukoji, 2014).

Minibuses are the most popular means of travel for intercity transportation in Nigeria, resulting
that fatal accidents involving minibuses are most prevalent on highways. Most of the accidents
that involve lorries and trucks also occur on highways, given the fact that they transport
agricultural products to cities (Ukoji, 2014). For intra-city transportation in Nigeria, cars are
also popular. However, poor vehicle maintenance and inability to observe safety measures often
lead to fatal accidents. Most of the crashes involving cars were reported in metropolitan areas.

Mechanical and vehicle related factors that can result in fatal road accidents include un-
roadworthy vehicles, poor vehicle maintenance, tyre blowouts, poor lights and broken-down
vehicles on the road without proper warning signs (Ukoji, 2014). The government of Nigeria has
introduced a few measures to improve vehicle safety. There is for example a free safety check
for all vehicles on the highway. Defects are identified and brought to the attention of the owners
of the vehicles without the issuance of tickets, penalties or fines. In 2014 more than 230.000
vehicles were checked under this arrangement. The introduction of speed limiters on
commercial vehicles as well as the implementation of a standard school bus design might
contribute to safer vehicles in Nigeria(Federal Road Safety Corps, 2014) .

Pillar 4: Road users

The poor driving culture in Nigeria is generally acknowledged. The utter disregard by road users
for traffic laws underlined by the strong religious belief of many Nigerians contribute to the poor
driving culture (Sumaila, 2013).

Most of the fatal road accidents occur in weekends and on Mondays according to Sumaila, 2013.
This is partially the result of social activities and several religious activities that take place over
the weekend. Most youths have limited driving experience and in the weekends drink-driving
and night-time driving further impairs their driving ability (Sumaila, 2013; Ukoji, 2014). On
Mondays drivers from transport companies may try to recoup weekend expenses when they
overload passengers and speeding to complete more trips.

Human error such as fatigue, lack of skill, drunkenness, speeding and carelessness have become
the main contributing factors for traffic crashes (Federal Road Safety Corps, 2013). In addition,
public awareness of traffic and safe driving is needed. Thus, the government of Nigeria has
launched intensive road safety campaigns, strengthened enforcement strategies, driving school
standardisation programmes and introduced medical exams for commercial drivers.

Pillar 5: Post-crash response

Nigeria does have multiple emergency telephone numbers but lacks emergency room injury
surveillance systems (Ukoji, 2014). Currently, only one toll free emergency line is designated for

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crash/incident reporting. In 2015 the Nigerian government introduced 20 new Mobile Care
Units and 26 new transport ambulances that will be stationed at the 26 general hospitals.

The Federal Road Safety Corps is expanding their fleet with more ambulances and tow trucks
and they establish emergency ambulance points along major corridors. The collection of road
accident data is very important to have a complete overview of the road safety problems. With
outdated road accident reporting systems a lot of accidents are not reported giving an
incomplete and false overview. To solve road safety problems and understanding of the road
accident situation is required and complete data is needed. The FRSC is collaborating with the
Federal Ministry of Health for the collection of injury data and the FRSC is introducing the new
template for the collection of road traffic crash data.

Reports of road crashes are channelled mainly through several informal and unstructured
media, including the emergency toll free line. The location of the crash is then directed to a FRSC
(Federal Road Safety Corps) patrol vehicle that is nearest to the crash scene. The data is collected
by people of the FRSC filling in a notebook entry or by the police filling in the paper accident
report form at the accident site (Sumaila, 2013).

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