Assessment of the Impact of Section 9 of the Nigerian Road Traffic Act 2004 on the Rate of Accidents/Road Crashes in Nigeria

Road Traffic Act 2004 section 9, is an Act which amended and extended the Road Traffic Acts 1961 to 2003. The Act made bye-laws ("special speed limit bye-laws") specifying in respect of any specified public road or specified part of a public road or specified carriageway or lane of a public road within its administrative area the speed limit ("special speed limit") which shall be the speed limit on that road or those roads for mechanically propelled vehicles. The problem of implementation of this section of the Act has become worrisome to both the Agencies involved in road safety and the public in general. This research therefore generally seeks to assess the level of implementation of the Act and reasons for poor implementation. Four hypotheses were constructed to address the research objective. Data was collected from the relevant agencies and transport operators. The data were analysed using simple percentage ratio, while the hypotheses were tested using Chi-square. The findings revealed that there is a relationship between road crashes and violation of section 9 of road traffic Act 2004 and that there are impediments towards the implementation of Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act of 2004. The study also revealed that there is low level of compliance to Section 9 of the Road Traffic Act of 2004. Traffic education would help in curbing road traffic and road crashes menaces. The study therefore recommended that there should be increased awareness of traffic education to both drivers and other road users. Also violators of the Act should be meant to face the full weight of the law. The approach to minimize road traffic accident should be multi factorial. The government's agencies responsible must enacts enforce laws and prosecute where such laws are broken. The law enforcement agent must be conscious of the fact that the money he or she may collect as bribe is not worth endangering human lives.