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Tyre related risk assessment in the middle belt region in Nigeria: information for policymakers


A.G. Salaudeen
G.K. Osagbemi
N.A. Hussain
O.I. Hussain
M.F. Adeyemi

Abstract

Objective: It has been reported that defective, worn-out and under-inflated tyres were responsible for many road crashes. The objective of this study was to assess the safety profiles of tyres used by inter-city commercial vehicle drivers in Ilorin Kwara State, Nigeria.

Methods: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study in which simple random sampling technique by ballot method was adopted to select 300 commercial vehicles. Two tests were performed on each vehicular tyre viz: visual inspection of tyres for tread wear indicator (TWI), manufacturing date to determine the expiry
date and the depth of tread of vehicle tyres by one penny US coin. Data analysis was done using SPSS data analysis package.

Results: Ninety-two vehicles (30.7%) had all the four tyres expired and 80 (26.7%) did not have extra tyre. Of all the 300 vehicles inspected, 120 (40.0%) had all the four tyres worn-out. Additionally, 104 (34.7%) of the vehicles failed the coin test. Only four vehicles (1.3%) had all their four tyres pass all the three tests conducted on them.

Conclusion: There is need to scale up the study so that the magnitude and contribution of tyre safety to road crashes can be determined in the country to provide basis for informed and evidence-based interventions.

Keywords: Tyres, risk, assessment


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eISSN: 2467-8252
print ISSN: 2360-7793