An In-Depth Study of Motorcycle Crashes Occurring Amongst Commercial Motorcyclists in Oyo State, Nigeria

Introduction: Rapid urbanization has led to an upsurge in the use of motorcycles and subsequently  motorcycle crashes in Nigeria. This abstract presents findings on the context in which motorcycle crashes occur among commercial motorcyclists in Oyo state Nigeria.

Methods: A total of 373 motorcyclists were selected using a multi-stage sampling technique and 51 of them had been involved in at least an accident since they commenced commercial riding. Motorcyclists were required to describe the circumstances surrounding the most recent accident they had.

Results: All respondents were male with a mean age of 33.7±9.2 years. Accidents occurred more frequently during the week-days 38 (74.5%). Twenty (39.2%) of the accidents occurred in the morning, 18 (35.3%) by afternoon and 13 (25.5%) by night. Most accidents, 35 (68.6%) occurred along a straight stretch of road; 10 (19.6%) at a T-junction, 4 (7.8%) at a bend and one (0.1%) each at a round-about and while the motorcyclist was driving out of a petrol station. Nineteen (37.3%) wore their helmets securely strapped when the accident occurred. Twenty-three (45.1%) had at least one passenger, none of whom wore helmets at the time of the accident. Concerning the object of impact, most of the motorcyclist ran into another vehicle, while some had lone accidents. Reasons given for the most recent accident included carelessness of other road users, 32 (62.7%), over-speeding by respondent 5 (9.8 %), mechanical fault 6 (11.8 %), and bad roads, 2 (3.9%).   

Conclusion: The study provided useful information on motorcycle crashes in the study area. These are likely to continue to increase because of the popularity of motorcycle use in the country. There is urgent need for local data on the circumstances under which crashes occur as these can be used to develop programmes to teach motorcyclists counter-measures to avoid crashes.

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