AN URGENT NEED FOR “TRUCK DRIVING SCHOOLS” IN NIGERIA

It has being captured in various literatures that over 80% of Truck drivers in Nigeria are illiterates which is why it is reflected in their attitude and behavioral pattern while driving the vehicle in terms of maintenance culture and road safety which can be summarized as very poor.

Road accident is a serious problem throughout the world in terms of social, health and economic development. Authorities in virtually all countries of the world are concerned about the growth in the number of people killed and seriously injured on their roads. According to Anthony Albanese (2010), road trauma is one of the major public health problems facing Australia. Tutu (2007) submits that road traffic accidents kill and maim millions of people annually in African countries. He also stated that they hamper economic development of many nations and cause enormous suffering. Furthermore, the rate of mortality in road traffic accident is very high among children and young adults in their prime and who constitute the work force in many countries (Peden, Mcgee and Krug, 2004; W.H.O, 2004; Sanger, 2010; Anthony — Albanese, 2010).

The magnitude of the road safety problem varied between different countries. Recent research has shown that many developing countries have serious road accident problems and that accident rates are higher than those of western industrial countries. In fact, the World Health Organisation has forecast that by the year 2020, road accidents will move up to sixth place as a cause of death, and in terms of years of life lost and ‘disability adjusted life years, it will be in second and third place respectively and there will be a 65% increase in the statistics if no immediate action is taken (Baluja, 2010). Road accident problem therefore, is urgent and complicated. Thus, there has been the call for the need to give more attention to the safety of road users in developing countries.

The World Health Organization survey and the Federal Road Safety Corp report of 5,693 fatal road accidents in 2009 leave no doubt about the dangerous situation on Nigerian roads. The causes of fatal accidents in Nigeria have been categorised into human, mechanical, and environmental factors. According to Umar, the human factor accounts for up to 90% of accidents, while the mechanical and environmental factors contribute to the other 10%.

Therefore truck industry in Nigeria is in urgent need for a state of emergency to re-calibrate, re-form, re-organize and re-orientate the major human factor behind the wheels of these gigantic moving machines. Thereis need for a prompt training and re-training of these truck drivers in a more formalized and structured learning environment in the mechanical,electrical and behavioral aspect of trucking. There is a need for the establishment of truck driving schools across the thirty-six state of the federal of Nigeria including the Federal Capital Territory.

Truck driving is different from car driving and the knowledge gained from a car driving school cannot be applicable to driving a truck. As a truck driver you are both a mechanic, electrician and a first aid personnel because when a truck breaks down a lot is at stake hence a need to apply a first aid techniques on the road.

From the research i carried out in my post-graduate thesis a few years ago which studies “truck drivers’ knowledge about road signage” the result shows that 42.3% learned truck driving from the knowledge gained in car driving schools while 18% from friends/members of the family (who either learns from a car driving school or other means), 28.4% from apprenticeship (which is what we call motor-boy training in the industry) and the remaining 11.3% learned through other means (which could be through personal practice or a combination of third party training who gained his/her knowledge from the other options above). This result is quite dangerous moving we need not be reminded of the “otedola bridge accident”, because when an heavy duty truck involves in a road accident the impact is huge in terms of the economic, environmental, social and psychological implications.

My findings so far does not show if there are indeed a specialized formal truck driving in Nigeria except from some multi-national organizations who train their truck drivers internally and some few companies who are really not professional truck driving schools but rather introduces truck driving training as part of their activities for the purpose of enhancing their business.

I look forward to consulting and hopefully a partnership with anyone who might want to take up this responsibility in ensuring that this dream becomes a reality in Nigeria where the goal is to reduce drastically accidents caused by these trucks in the near future and to empower youths who wish to take up jobs in the industry.

Thanks for reading my article and I looking forward to your comments and suggestions.