1. Highlights of Road Traffic
Accidents In Ethiopia
In 1995 EC (2003 GC)
• Above 1,800 people died due to road accident
• Above 7,000 people are crippled or injured
• 53 % of deaths involve pedestrians
• 31 % of of pedestrian deaths are students
• The death rate is 136 per 10,000 vehicles,
• Over 400 Million Birr is lost yearly as a result

2. Road traffic accidents occur
due to defects or errors of
Road Environment
 Roads
 Weather
 Light condition
Vehicles
 Motorized
 Non motorized
Road Users
 Drivers
 Pedestrians
 Cyclists
 Animals

3. COMBINATIONS OF THESE FACTORS
CAUSE ROAD ACCIDENTS
Road
Environment
Road
User
Road user and
Road
environment
Vehicle
Road user and
Vehicle
Road users, Vehicles
and Roads environment
Vehicles and
Road
environment

4. -
ncidences
Incidence
Unknow n case
Others cases
Collusion w ith train
Collusion w ith inanimate object
Collusion w ith parked car
Fall from vehicle
Animal strike
Pedestrian strike
Turned over
Side to side crash
Front and side crash
Front and back crash
Front crash
Accident numbers
Personnel injury road accidents related to incidences
4,000
Severity
3,500
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
Light
Serious
Death
1,000
500

5. Y1
99
4
Y1
99
Y1 5
99
Y1 6
99
7
Y1
99
Y1 8
99
Y2 9
00
0
Y2
00
Y2 1
00
2
Y2
00
3
Fatalty rate per 10,000
vehicles
1994 to 2003 Fatalty Rate
250
200
150
100
Rates
50
-
Year

6. Mean annual casualties by category
Casuality number
4,500
4,000
3,500
Severity
Light
Serious
Death
3,000
2,500
2,000
1,500
1,000
500
Pedestrians
Passengers
Category
Drivers

7. Mean annual personnel injury accidents related to causes
4,500
Severity
3,500
3,000
Light
2,500
2,000
Serious
1,500
1,000
Death
500
Causes
n
Un
kn
ow
Ot
he
rs
er
r
or
s
or
er
r
er
r
ria
n
Pe
de
st
Ro
ad
or
or
er
r
Ve
hic
le
er
e
rr o
r
-
Dr
iv
Accident num bers
4,000

8. Distribution of vehicles as %age of total
buses
trucks>100q
4%
4%
trucks<100Q
30%
tankers
2%
buses
trucks>100q
tankers
Automobile
Taxi+Mini
11%
St.w agon
6%
Automobile
43%
St.wagon
Taxi+Mini
trucks<100Q

9. Accident rate Per 10,000 vehicles
buses
Trucks
<100q
Trucks
>100q
tankers
Automobil St.wagon
e
Taxi+
Minibus
Death
349
191
136
105
12
138
130
Heavy
injury
374
213
130
83
35
248
252
Light
injury
351
181
93
57
106
344
431
Property
damage
1,335
608
711
542
322
1,269
1,072

10. 1,200
1,000
Severity
800
Light injury
600
Heavy injury
Death
400
ut
om
ob
ile
S
t.w
ag
on
Ta
xi
+M
in
ib
us
A
ta
nk
er
s
-
tr
uc
ks
<1
00
q
tr
uc
ks
>1
00
q
200
bu
se
s
Accidents per 10,000 vehicles
Personnel injury accidents related to vehicle category
Vehicle category

11. THE ACCIDENT RECORDS SHOW THAT THE MAIN
ROAD SAFETY PROBLEMS IN ETHIOPIA ARE
• DRIVERS NOT RESPECTING PEDESTRIAN PRIORITY
• OVER SPEEDING
• UNSAFE UTILIZATION OF FREIGHT VEHICLES FOR
PASSENGER TRANSPORT
• POOR SKILL AND UNDECIPLINED BEHAVIOR OF DRIVERS
• PEDESTRIANS NOT TAKING PROPER PRECAUTIONS
• ANIMALS AND ANIMAL-DRAWN CARTS ON ROADWAYS
• OVER LOADED OR IMPROPERLY LOADED VEHICLES
• WEAK TRAFFIC LAW ENFORCEMENT
• LACK OF PROPER EMERGENCY MEDICAL SERVICES
• ENGINEERING EFFORTS MAY NOT CONSIDER SAFETY
• POOR VEHICLE CONDITIONS

12. STRATEGIES AND PROGRAMS FOR
ROAD SAFETY IMPROVEMENTS
 Establish the National Road Safety Coordinating Council
 Establish regional road safety coordinating committees in each
region
 Establish road safety engineering units in roads authorities
 Implement mandatory 3rd party vehicle insurance law
 Improve driver training and testing










Implement defensive driving for professional drivers
Strengthen targeted traffic law enforcement
Implement stringent vehicle testing procedure
Implement traffic safety education for children
Promote road safety publicity on speed limits and pedestrian priority
Improve accident data collection and processing system
Develop hazardous location maps for safety measures
Implement road safety audit and engineering measures
Promote emergency medical service improvements
Implement research on road safety publicity and accident costing

13. OBSERVATION 1
PERSONNEL INJURY ACCIDENT
CAUSES FOR 1990 TO 1994 WERE
1. PEDESTRIAN STRIKE ---------- 68 %
2. OVERTURN ------------------------ 13 %
3. FALL FROM VEHICLE --------- 6 %
4. ANIMAL STRIKE ----------------- 3 %
5. ALL OTHERS TOGATHER -----10 %

14. OBSERVATION 2
PERSONNEL INJURY CASUALITY
FIGURES FOR 1990 TO 1994 SHOW
1. Pedestrians -------------- 48 %
2. Passengers --------------- 46 %
3. Drivers -------------------- 07 %

15. OBSERVATION 4
FROM 1990 TO 1994 PERSONNEL
INJURY ACCIDENTS OCCURED DUE TO
THE FOLLOWING ERRORS
1. DRIVER ERROR --------------- 81%
2. VEHICLE ERROR -------------- 5%
3. PEDESTRIAN ERROR --------- 4%
4. ROAD + OTHERS ERROR --- 10%

16. Road Safety Programs Implemented

Strengthening drivers’ training and testing procedure. The drivers’ training
and testing procedures have been revised and strengthened to ensure
improvement of the drivers’ skill. The revised procedures are now being
implemented at all levels.
 Defensive driving. Studies have shown that professional drivers’ cause most
of the personnel injury accidents in the country. In order to improve their
skills and behavior defensive driving program has been implemented in the
training programs of professional drivers. Further, transport associations and
organizations have been made aware of the need to establish a safety unit to
cater for their safety improvement programs. Upto now some 10 such
organizations have established such units in their organizational structure.

Strengthening the technical inspection of vehicles. The annual technical
inspection procedure has been made more stringent and is being
implemented starting this September. Further, random inspections on
roadsides and at bus terminals have been implemented in 3 regions. Other
regions are expected to follow up this development.

17. Road Safety Programs Implemented



(CONTINUED)
Children road safety education. The ministry of Education has developed and
issued directives with intensive road safety syllabus in both the basic education
and extra curriculum activities for all the primary schools to adopt for this education
year. This procedure is in line with the national road safety program in schools.
Road safety publicity. At the national level one TV program and two radio
programs are broadcasted each week to develop the road safety awareness of the
public. Also a weekly radio program on road safety has been started by Amhara
region. A zonal once a week radio program has also been started by Wolaita zone
in the Southern region. Some 5.5 million people have also been given road safety
briefings in 5 regional states in the previous year alone.
Targeted traffic law enforcement. Speed has been identified in the studies made as
one of the major factors in road accidents involving personnel injuries. Preliminary
results of a 4 months of test period have shown significant reduction in the
percentage of violators. The traffic police of Oromia region has adopted this
effective speed control system and is taking penalty actions along the major route
to the southern part of the country. Additional radars will be purchased to intensify
such controls.

18. Road Safety Programs Implemented


(CONTINUED)
Hazardous location identification. Studies have been made to identify
the  hazardous locations of Addis Ababa city and the major highways
of the country. At present such a study for the Addis Ababa-Awassa
road segment is near completion. Even at this state the result shows
that this concept is very valuable in identifying the location with
frequent accidents and designing the safety measures needed to
reduce accidents.
Pedestrian awareness. The accident data shows that 68% of
personnel injury accidents in our country involve pedestrians.
Students have participated in some towns to educate pedestrians to
take proper precautions to avoid road accidents. Others are following
the examples of such towns. Ambo is one such town to be noted. It is
also important to note that some of the regions have started to
sensitize the communities along the highways to protect road signs
and posts from vandalism and damage. Good examples in this
relation are Dawro and South Omo zones in SNNP region, which not
only sensitized the communities but also took measures to recover
lost signs and in some cases brought to court the offenders.

19. The goal of the national road safety program is to
bring the present fatality rate of 136 per 10,000
vehicles to 54 by the year 2010. The observed
collaborative effort of the concerned private and
government organizations at federal and regional
levels and the concern of the public is a strong basis
for the confidence that this target will be achieved.