Dr. A. Mohammed, Engr. S. Y. Umar & Dr. D.

Samson Civil Engineering Programme ATBU, Bauchi

Highway crashes result in high fatalities and various degrees of live changing injuries that cause huge economic loses to the country. The World Bank estimates that road crashes cost approximately 1 to 3 percent of a country's annual Gross National Product (GNP) = 350 billion to 1 trillion.
Records for 2011 showed that 4,372 people were killed and a further 17, 464 suffered various injuries as a result of traffic accidents.
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To investigate the effect of pavement condition on traffic safety with emphasis on three federal roads in Bauchi State.

Source: Tighe, et al, 2001

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Driver behaviour is judged the most important among causes of road crashes where vehicle and pavement condition are in very good state (Jacobs and Baguely, 2004). Craus et al. (1991) investigated the effect of pavement surface condition on traffic accidents and concluded that there is no significant unilateral correlation between these two parameters.
Al-Masaeid (1997) found that the pavement condition had significant effect on single- and multiple vehicle accident rates, but no statistical influence on the total accident rate.
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Sjlinder et al (1997) and Ihs (2004) indicated that ruts possibly seem to have a tendency to improve traffic safety while unevenness (as defined by the International Roughness Index, IRI) has the opposite effect. Studies of the relationships between geometric design and road accidents in Kenya and others, showed that apart from traffic flow, junctions per kilometre was the most important factor related to accidents, followed by horizontal and vertical curvature.
The study proposed using accident reduction and prevention measures as a way of meeting the challenges of traffic safety in developing countries.
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By-passing of towns/villages on major routes.

Limiting the degree of curvature on roads. Use of lay-bys by local food sellers, buses and taxis in order to reduce congestion and improve visibility.
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Examples of effects of engineering design on road safety. Source: Jacobs and baguely, 2004

Data Pavement condition data from the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA).

Road accident data from Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC).

Method FERMAs pavement rating system in Table 1 was made qualitative by assigning scores as in Table 2. Routes Bauchi to Jos Border (114 km) Bauchi to Yobe Border (137 km) Bauchi to Gombe (155 km)

FERMAs pavement rating System

Condition Description

Good Fair Poor

Bad

Stable pavement structure with asphalt overlay. No or very few potholes, or alligator cracks. Stable pavement structure with asphalt overlay. Has potholes not exceeding 100m2 per km length. Presence of undulating road sections, alligator cracks and cluster potholes with few failed sections. Predominantly unstable road sections, wide alligator cracks with many failed section up to subgrade, pavement washout, peaty surface. Not safe for vehicular traffic

Scoring system used in the study

Condition Road Condition Score Good 5.00 Fair 3.33 Poor 1.67 Bad 0

Weighted Road Condition Score (RCS)

RCS and Road Accident Data

Route Road Total No of condition Crashes in Score 2012 4.26 2.71 102 71 Total No injured in 2012 284 310 Total No killed in 2012 61 54 Total No Total No injured/ Total Killed/ Total No of No of crashes crashes 2.78 4.37 0.60 0.76

Bauchi Jos BauchiGombe Bauchi Yobe Border

4.2

43

213

31

4.95

0.72

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4.5 4

Road Condition Score

3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0

Bauchi -Jos Bauchi- Gombe Bauchi -Yobe Border

Route

Variation of RCS among the three routes

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120

100

Number of Crashes

80 60 40 20 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5

R = 0.004

4.5

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Number of Crashes and Road Condition Score (RCS) for the three roads
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1.8

Normalised Number of Crashes

1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
R = 0.5885

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Normalised Number of Crashes with respect to Average Daily Traffic (ADT) and Road Condition Score (RCS) for the three roads
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350 300

Number Injured

250
R = 0.466

200 150

100
50 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Number of people Injured and RCS

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Normalised Number Injured

6
5 4 3 2 1 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 R = 0.8802

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Normalised Number of people Injured with respect to ADT and RCS
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70 60

Number Killed

50 40 R = 0.0684

30
20 10 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Number of people killed and RCS

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1.4

Normalised Number Killed

1.2 1 R = 0.9554 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5

Road Condition Score

Relationship between Normalised Number of people killed and RCS

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1.

The result of the study shows that there is a statistically significant effect of pavement condition on traffic safety when the traffic volume is considered in terms of number of persons injured and number of fatalities.
Design considerations like horizontal and vertical curvatures, number towns/villages/intersections on major routes have significant impact on traffic safety. Most of the accidents are near vertical and horizontal curves, security check points, towns and villages, as well as intersections. The severity index from the number of crashes shows that the highest fatality rate is 0.76 (Bauchi - Gombe route) while the lowest rate of 0.60 (Bauchi - Jos route) people killed per crash is rather alarming. The severity index from the number of crashes shows that the highest injury rate is 4.95 (Bauchi - Yobe Border route) while the lowest rate is 2.78 (Bauchi - Jos route) people injured per crash.

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Thank You
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