Economic condition and road transport crashes in Nigeria: evidence from state level data

Abstract

This study investigates the impact of economic condition proxied as unemployment on road transport crashes across states in Nigeria. Both the descriptive and inferential analyses were employed to describe the panel data employed in this study. The dynamic system Generalised Methods of Moments (GMM) was employed on the panel data collected from National Bureau of Statistics. The study found that unemployment has a positive impact on road transport crashes across states in Nigeria and unemployment increases the number of reported cases of road transport crashes in all geopolitical zones of Nigeria. We also found that causative factors of road crashes such as speed limit violation, bad roads and road obstruction violation increase road transport crashes. Further findings revealed that inflation increases road transport crashes in the South-Eastern region, decreases road transport crashes in the North-Eastern and South-Southern regions, but does not determine road transport crashes in other regions of the country. The study concluded that aside causative factors of road crashes such as speed limit violation, bad roads and road obstruction violation which has been present for decades, the menace of unemployment is also being felt in road transport crashes across states. It is therefore, recommended that state governments should look into ways of empowering individuals through entrepreneurship and other empowerment programmes in order to reduce the rate at which people wander around in search of jobs to earn a living.