Background of the study Problem statement Methodology Data collection Summary of the comparison Conclusion and Recommendation

1. A Comparison of the Nigerian Police Crash Report
Form with other Selected Countries
By
Suleiman Abdulrahman, Ishtiaque Ahmed, and Ibrahim Kamoru
Ademola
Kebbi State University of Science and Technology Aliero, Nigeria
10 – 12th April, 2017

2. PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Background of the study
Problem statement
Methodology
Data collection
 Summary of the comparison
 Conclusion and Recommendation

3. Background of the Study
Do you know that:
 Over one million people die on the roads annually?
 Nigeria has the highest road accident rates in Africa, and the second
highest road accident record in the world .
 In developing countries whole families can be thrown into poverty when
a breadwinner is killed or incapacitated.
The cost of highway accidents is a major strain on Nigerian economy, and
response to these incidents has remained a national challenge

4. Background of Study continues....
Road accident results from a combination of factors related to the components of
the system comprising of the roads, the environment, vehicles, road users, and
the way they interact.
Over the past three decades, most of the high income countries have been
somewhat successful in reducing the carnage on their roads and it is worth
learning a lesson from their experience.
Source: Highway safety manual 2010

5. Background.....
The preliminary crash report is the basic information source for any crash
database. A preliminary crash report prepared by the police contains factual
information known immediately after the crash.
The available data from the crash database may help identify patterns in crash
type, crash severity, or the roadway environment.
Different agencies use different
Formats.

6. Problem Statement
Although the Preliminary Police Crash Report Forms act as the basic source of
data on any road crash, however the contents of the crash reports vary
among agencies.
Some agencies provide more detailed information where others skip
important information about the crash. For example, the Oregon, USA form
considers ten (10) different types of road surface conditions but the Nigerian
and Louisiana, USA form does not provide any information on this.
This indicates that the forms have been developed without adequate
consideration of the relevant factors.
This creates a big gap and differences among the content of the data
collected and preserved by different agencies.
.

7. Methodology
With the above information, the study objective was to compare the Nigerian
Road Traffic Crash Information (RTI 01) form with other agency forms in terms of
three important crash related parameters.
1. Collision Types
2. Road Surface Condition
3. Human (Driver) Factors

8. Data Collection
The data were collected in form of Forms and compared from countries
representing both developed and the developing world with the Nigerian accident
recording form.
Based on the availability of the data, a total number of ten (10) crash forms were
studied. This includes the Oregon State form as a primary input, which is also a
part of the latest version of the Highway Safety Manual, 2010.
The following table contains the list of Police Crash Report forms reviewed in this
study.

9. Selected countries for comparison and their forms

10. Summary of the comparison
1. Collision Types
In the Nigerian form; type of collision is clearly mentioned but only five
types were listed.
 In the Oregon, USA form (that is included in the HSM as a sample), Twenty
six (26) types of fixed object crashes were listed.
 Florida has a reporting system on Collision Types in terms of four (04)
sequential Harmful Events for three (03) different involved parties.
 Kent County, UK form does not have any information clearly noted as
collision type.
 Sri Lanka form has a specified field for mentioning of collision types but the
list of collision types is not included in the main form.

11. Summary of the comparison
2. Road Surface Condition
 In the Nigerian form, there is no clear information on the road surface condition of
the road at the crash scene. This issue needs to be addressed because the road
surface condition of the road contributes to lots of crashes in Nigeria. Information
such as Potholes/Patching, Rutting, Hydroplaning or Slippery road surface, etc. should
be included.
 Oregon, USA form considers ten (10) different types of road surface conditions
including Dry, Wet, Snow/Slush, Icy, Muddy, Debris, Ruts/Holes/Bumps,
Worn/Polished, Low/Soft Shoulder and Other. Greater number of surface types offers
more detailed reporting
 British Columbia, Canada and Louisiana, USA forms do not include any information
about the road surface conditions of the crash location. This leads to inadequate
reporting in some aspect.

12. Summary of the comparison continues......
3. Human Factors
Nigerian Form: although there is no separate section provided for Human Contributing
factors; the form listed ten (10) possible human errors that may contribute to the road
crashes in Nigeria.
 In the Oregon, USA form, eighteen (18) factors are listed in a box called “Driver Factors”
to be marked separately for two different drivers/parties.
 In the Kent County, UK form, driver related factors are divided in to three (03) categories.
These separations of parameters as a) Driver’s Error Type b) Impairment or Distraction and
c) Behaviour or Inexperience factor; is expected to allow more efficient reporting.
 In the Texas form, no separate section on Human Error factor.

13. Conclusion and Recommendation
The study concludes that the current Nigerian Road Traffic Crash Information Form
(RTI 01) needs to be strengthened because the information captured in the form is
not comprehensive enough in conducting an in-depth investigation and analysis of
accident records.
1. It is very important that the forms should be simple to complete and attractive to
the eye to help prevent the task of form filling being regarded as too tedious by
the police/Road safety corps.
2. There is a need for maintaining uniformity in the crash data formats among
various agencies to facilitate efficient comparison of crash data among different
agencies.

14. Recommendation
3. Development of a model preliminary crash report format is essential at the
international level.
Lastly, the present manual method of accident recording system should be
replaced with a digital format using RaDaR application. It is a mobile application
developed by International Road federation (IRF) for the purpose of crash
recording.

15. THANK YOU