Assessment of the Relationship between Weather and Road Traffic Accidents in Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Abstract

Assessment of the association between selected weather parameters which include rainfall, air temperature,
visibility, relative humidity, wind speed and evaporation rate and the occurrence of road traffic accidents
(RTAs) was conducted in Zaria unit command of the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) which is located
between Latitudes 10°49'19'' to 11°28'12'' North and longitudes 7°05'41'' to 8°08'8'' East. Data transformation was
carried out on the data obtained for weather and RTAs while Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient
was used to assess the magnitude and direction of association between the weather parameters and the RTA
variables in Zaria. The weather parameters were tested against each of the seven RTA variables (which are:
fatal, serious, minor and total cases of RTA on one hand and the number of passengers injured or killed and total
casualties on the other hand) annually and then monthly to see the nature of association between the
two.Rainfall was found to have a positive association with six them; number of wet days on the other hand had a
negative association with six of them. Air temperature also had a positive association with six of them including
total number of cases and casualties. Visibility and relative humidity had a positive association with all of them
while evaporation rate had a negative association with all the RTA variables.