In Nigeria, heavy duty truck drivers (HDT) are often involved in road traffic accidents which are often associated with colossal damage to lives, properties and infrastructures.

In 2011, the FRSC in its Traffic Digest reported that Nigeria has an average of approximately 5,000 tankers involved in wet cargo haulage, moving about 150 million litres of fuel, and 2,500 trailers in dry cargo plying Nigeria’s roads daily.

Kayode Olagunju, a Corps Commander with the Federal Road Safety Commission revealed that between 2007and June 2010, a total of 4,017 tanker/trailer crashes were recorded on Nigerian roads, with a yearly average of 1,148 crashes, monthly average of 96 crashes and a total of 4,076 persons killed in such crashes involving tankers and trailers.

From 2011 till date, the trend has not changed much. It was within this period that we recorded several fatal accidents among which are the below listed:

—-September 18, 2012:- 50 people died when a truck rammed into by-standers, street hawkers, Okada riders and passenger-buses at the Ijebu-Ode roundabout along Benin-Ore Expressway

—-July 12 2012:- 121 were killed and 75 injured when a road tanker overturns and later explodes in Okobie, Rivers State

—-Dec 17, 2012:- 27 lives lost and 18 others seriously injured in an accident involving a trailer along Ruwa Wuri-Tangaza road, Sokoto State

—-December 27 2012:- At least 9 people were killed and 11 were injured when a bus collided with a truck in Osun State

—-April 5, 2013:- 60 persons were burnt to death in a fatal multiple accident involving a trailer, an oil tanker and a luxury bus at Ugbogui village, along the Benin-Ore-Lagos Expressway

—-June 27, 2014:- 5 lives lost in an early morning accident involving a white Mark truck, white Volvo truck and a white Nissan Cabstar at Kara along Lagos-Ibadan Expressway

 

IS THERE A LINK?

The association between psychoactive substance use and accidental injury or death has been acknowledged. In the UK for instance, alcohol accounts for 50,000 deaths per year and up to 500,000 hospital admissions annually. In the United States of America, about 10,000 deaths were attributed to use of alcohol by young people (New York Times 2013).

The WHO has reported a link between drivers’ hazardous use of alcohol and road traffic accidents in Nigeria (WHO, 2009). Approximately 50% of accidents, and its attendant consequences, on Nigerian roads are related to alcohol use (Welcome and Pereverzev, 2010).

Many studies in Nigeria have also reported common use of alcohol (and other psychoactive substances) among commercial and long distance vehicle drivers (Makanjuola et al, 2007b, UNAIDS 2007). Another report found a prevalence of alcohol drinking prior to driving. The Global Action on harmful drinking reported the prevalence of current drinking by commercial drivers in Nigeria. In another study, it was found that almost all commercial drivers engage in drinking and driving. Common psychoactive drugs including alcohol associated with commercial drivers are tobacco, cannabis, caffeine, sedatives and solvents.

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