"Every day thousands of people...will never return home, leaving behind shattered families and communities ...Current efforts to address road safety are minimal in comparison to this growing human suffering"...

From the Foreword by the Director General of WHO and the World Bank's President

Welcome to PATVORA Advocacy Centre! 

This website recognises that the issue of road safety in Africa has not received proper attention at local, national or Continental level. Thus, the purpose of this site is to increase road safety awareness, promote understanding of road safety as a highly preventable disease, encourage research in road safety, raise funds for road safety activities, develop networking among road user groups and as much as possible be a voice for victims of road crashes especially those who are unable to speak for themselves in Nigeria. 

The information on this site should be of interest to the media, legislators, licensing agencies, law enforcement authorities, traffic safety organisations, road crash victims, corporate citizens, road user groups, NGOs and all responsible road users. The site intends to help you better understand road safety and what can be done to change the picture from one of neglect to one of dedicated action.

 The website has created opportunities and tools to facilitate the community's role as a proactive advocate of road safety concerns. This website contains views and legislative proposals from the general public and PATVORA volunteers on how to improve road safety in Nigeria. Also, the site opposes measures which are counterproductive to road safety development and/or which may be harmful to road users. 

The site intends to bring road safety to the top of the social policy agenda by focusing public attention on the innocent victims of this highly preventable road crashes. The site will stimulate interest by publicising the worsening road safety situation and the issues that are involved. Also, the site will conduct exhibitions, featuring the pictures and testimonies of hundreds of victims of road traffic injuries and illustrate the huge scale of the problem.

 The information on the site has been put together to help organisations and individuals involved in road safety development in Nigeria become more efficient and effective in the delivery of road safety development services. Consequently, the site has provided strategies for direct involvement in road safety activities that will hopefully encourage government agencies and others in the society to also step forward and do more to address this problem.

 This site has been separated into individual pages including advocacy issues on awareness, corporate and individual participation and general victims rights. Also, there are facilities for contributions from all those who have been bereaved or injured through a road crash to speak about the impact this has had on them and recount their experiences in the aftermath of the crash.

 The site provides advice on how to become a road safety advocate and offers partnership opportunities for NGO’s, government agencies and the media that are concerned about road danger and lack of support for road victims. For those who are interested in drawing attention and influencing decisions with respect to local legislation and policy making to ensure safer roads and safe driving culture, there are facilities that will enable you contact your Representative at the National Assembly or write your favourite media. For more specific advocacy issues, please refer to the action centre

Yearly, this site highlights two issues of concern to road users - this year, it is the complacency of alcohol manufacturers’ to road safety and under funding of the National road safety agency. If you want your opinion or suggestion posted on this site, please write advocacy@patvora.org

 This initiative represents a fresh start and bold new approach to increase support for road safety in Nigeria and calls for the much stronger engagement of leading multinationals in road safety development in Nigeria. If you are concerned about the high rate of death and injury on our roads, you might like to join PATVORA Advocacy to work with us for positive changes.

 Anyone who visits this site can inform others using the send to a friend link

 PATVORA advocacy services rely on public support. If you wish to contribute to our efforts then please  mailto:info@patvora.org or call Ken on 080 23232328 to discuss how you can get involved.

 THE NEED

 Africa

In Africa, we still face an uncertain future on the roads. The situation on African roads is worsening with the number of motorised vehicles increasing rapidly. At first glance, traffic safety does not register as a pressing development issue. Yet thousands of people are killed and hundreds more are injured.

 The rapid increase in the use of motor cycles for public transportation and the existing road safety problems have combined to make Africa a continent with the worst road death record of 28.3 per 100,000 people. Today, Road Traffic Injury (RTI) has become a major killer disease, yet it is not being given serious attention as other killer diseases by the governments and the civil society.  

Disturbing facts point to the reality that most accidents are caused by excessive speed, carelessness, bad roads, drunk driving and impatience of drivers. Painfully, we are witnesses to this epidemic spreading among us, causing roads to be a place of danger. In most parts of Africa, RTIs are having a dramatic impact on social cohesiveness and economic strength, blocking the very development goals we seek unfortunately, Virtually, all the national road safety agencies in Africa are under funded; others are road safety agencies more in name than substance. 

The African road safety agenda demands of the governments new approaches, new resources and new commitments of political will. Meeting the challenges of a complex road safety agenda in Africa requires advocacy that will bring about the cooperation of all stakeholders at an unprecedented level. 

Nigeria

The effects of road safety crisis, in terms of death, disability and morbidity are devastating in Nigeria. Despite the enormous toll taken by road crashes, the disease does not receive the attention it deserves from government, the health care profession, the insurance industry, the media, the corporate citizens, vehicle manufacturers and the civil society.

 The health effects of road crashes are similar or greater than HIV or Malaria. Unfortunately, the health care industry including programmes of the federal government, state governments, local governments, employers and public health programmes do not actively involve stemming the road safety crisis. From research, education, prevention to treatment, the health care fields, treats road safety crisis as a second-class citizen.

 In Nigeria, RTI is a big threat - ranging from prevention to rehabilitation of accident victims.  Road accidents and injuries are the major causes of death in adults under fifty years. Road crash victims occupy between 5 to 10 per cent of beds in already over stretched hospitals.

 The greatest tragedy of all in this is that each and every road injury and death is completely avoidable. Current knowledge of road crashes has progressed beyond the simple generalisations of the past. Formerly, road safety was considered fully explained by fatalistic beliefs. The known interventions and the success stories from the developed world gives hope that the fight against road crashes can be won. . What is needed is for us to harness political will and act on the knowledge of interventions that work.

 To adopt practices that we know worked in developed countries like vehicle safety regulation; use of safety belts; sober driving; speed control and enforcement; public information and education; engineering of safer roads, we need to engage in road safety advocacy because the society is yet to recognise that RTI is a leading cause of death and is highly preventable.

 Road safety advocacy is the responsibility of all road users because every road user is a potential victim of road accident. RTI is not a problem that’s going to be solved by government alone, it is a problem that belongs to society, to people in society and advocacy is very important for improving road safety situation and the lives of those bereaved or injured through road crash.

 To combat a condition that threatens more than 95% of Nigerians is not an easy task nor is it a task that should be left to an agency that is poorly funded. Unfortunately, in Nigeria, there is no organised advocacy organisation lobbying for greater road safety funding and there is no Member of the National Assembly or celebrity promoting road safety.

 We are involved in advocacy for safer roads because we believe that in Nigeria, road traffic injuries need to be considered alongside heart disease, HIV, malaria, cancer and stroke as a preventable public health problem that responds well to targeted interventions. With your voice and support we can do much more.

 BECOME AN ADVOCATE!

 The voice of one advocate begets another, which begets yet another. If every person believed that they couldn’t make a difference, no one would ever take action. If each individual assumes their own personal responsibility for road safety advocacy, though, suddenly a group of advocates is formed and united.

 Don't leave this important work to someone else. Without your participation and involvement, one less letter is written and one less voice is heard. If 100 people do not become advocates for road safety, then 100 less voices are heard. The message is diminished.

 To become an advocate for road safety, you have to become passionate about what you believe road users need. Focus on bringing awareness to those needs. We have a road safety advocate section to help get you started

 AIM

 PATVORA advocacy site identifies itself with the mission of the WHO and the FRSC to reduce fatalities on the roads. We want to take full advantage of our diversity and strength to participate in the following:-

 1.           Development of national rules and regulations related to road safety issues.

2.              Encourage the three tiers of government across the nation to make road safety a political priority.

3.              Educate the public about preventable road crash and its role in causing unnecessary deaths.

4.              Help professionals to provide the best possible solutions for road safety.

5.              Encourage efforts to prevent road crash, especially among youths.

6.              Ensure that insurance companies and third-party payers provide adequate coverage for accident victims.

7.              Persuade government officials and legislators to properly fund the FRSC and other road safety activities and eliminate laws and policies that negatively affect road safety development.

8.              End social, economic and legal discrimination against those who suffer from disability from road crash.

9.              Support research on road safety through the establishment of road safety research Centre

10.         Encourage participation of the private sector in road safety development.

11.         Urge public health agencies to incorporate road safety into their health promotion and disease prevention activities, to set goals for reducing road traffic crashes, to improve care options for victims and to devise better ways of collecting health-related data on RTIs.

12.         Encourage effective, evidence-based policies and practices being developed that protect vulnerable road users.

13.         Persuade road user groups to urge drivers to behave responsibly by observing speed and drink-driving limits, wearing crash helmets when riding two-wheel vehicles.

14.         Develop strategies for enhanced participation of NGOs in road safety activities.

15.         Urge Media organisations in the country to devote news space and airtime for religious leaders and traditional rulers to educate the public on the consequences of road crash.

PATVORA road safety advocates are highly convinced that road safety problems can be tackled by a combination of educational and promotional campaigns; legislation and enforcement; research and community participation in road safety. Thus, we are promoting public private partnerships for road safety development.