CURTAILING THE DISASTER OF MOVING MONSTERS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA
CURTAILING THE DISASTER OF MOVING MONSTERS IN LAGOS, NIGERIA

Summary/Abstract: Aside from the persistent building collapse, acute flood disaster and ocean surge which are known as regular characteristics of Lagos, Nigeria, the menace and ugly incidence of heavy-duty trucks and articulated vehicle operation has now joined the league of contemporary issues affecting Lagosians with huge consequences on socio-economic development and sustainability of Lagos. Based on this backdrop, this study examined the risks and disaster of heavy-duty trucks and articulated vehicles in Lagos, Nigeria with the view to proffering measures to tame the operations of the moving monsters. Data for this study were mainly from the use of questionnaire administration and complemented by the Truck Road Traffic Crashes data retrieved from the Federal Road Safety Corps archive. 150 copies of questionnaire were purposively and conveniently administered on truck drivers found along five (5) major accident-prone traffic corridors in the study area. Obtained information were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics (linear regression) techniques. Major findings revealed that majority of the truck drivers were male (85%), aged between 25-35 years (43%) and has 5-10 years driving experience. Findings also show that 60% of the disaster-related causal factors were ranked above Mean Index Value of 2.61, with road-related problems (3.50), drunk driving (3.25) and tailgating (3.21) were ranked first, second and third factors. Regression results revealed that incidence of truck-related disaster statistically influences the number of casualties involved (F1/9 36.177, p= 0.000 < 0.05). Meanwhile, loss of life, vehicle, investment and time, displacement of population, environmental degradation among others were ranked very-high impact of risk and disaster of truck operation. The study recommends among others, strong policy implementation strategies to cater for prevention, preparedness, recovery and response mechanisms to address disaster related to transport operation in Nigerian cities.

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