ABSTRACT
The burden of road traffic accidents has been increasing globally with
Injuries and deaths from road traffic accidents accounting for a significant
share of the global disease burden. This is evident especially in low and middle
income countries (LMICs), were these injuries and deaths account for a
reasonable share of the disease burden. In Zambia, for example, road traffic
accidents are the third leading cause of death after HIV/AIDS and Malaria and
more than half of these accidents happen at night. To reverse the growing
incidence of road crushes, the government of Zambia put a ban on night travel
for public service vehicles in November, 2016. While other countries such as
Kenya have implemented similar bans, there is no evidence on the extent to which
such a ban may reduce accidents.
Objective
to examine the effect of the night travel ban on road traffic accidents
in Zambia after the implementation of the night travel ban. The study set
out to established whether there was a change in the number of
accidents.
Design
the study design was a single group interrupted time series analysis.
Administrative data on road traffic accidents in Zambia for the period 1964
to 2018 was used.
Setting
this research was a national study, therefore it encompassed national
statistics on road accidents of the entire country of Zambia.
Main outcome measure
The total counts of road traffic accidents in Zambia recorded during the
study period 1964 to 2018.
Results
it was found that the night travel ban reduced the number of road
crushes by 1,211 within one year of implementing the intervention. (p value
0.001, CI −1878.079 to −543.130).
Conclusion
the night travel ban may be an effective way of reducing the burden of
road traffic injuries in Zambia and other LMICs.
Section 1: What is already known on this topic
In Zambia, there is a high number of road traffic
accidents that occur during the night compared to the day
time (fisa et al, 2019, ikabungo 2015 and patel
1979).
Interventions have been put in place to reduce the
number of accidents but there is no evidence of their
effectiveness.
In light of the lack of evidence of such interventions,
the study was carried out to provide evidence to policy
makers so that their decisions can be evidence
based.
Section 2: what the study adds
Our study suggests that the policy proved to be
effective in reducing the total number of accidents in
Zambia.
This study provides evidence of the effectiveness of an
intervention which in turn provides policy makers with
grounds on which to maintain such a policy.
The study triggers further research on other effects of
banning night time travel
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