Crash Helmet Usage among Commercial Cyclists Across Rural-Urban divide in Kwara State Nigeria:A preliminary investigation

Abstract

There are various regulations and safety rules guiding commercial motorcycle operations in
Nigeria. The commercial cyclists often violate these rules with impunity causing road crashes and
eventually leading to loss of lives and properties. The objective of this paper is to examine the use of
crash helmet among commercial motorcycle riders in Kwara state Nigeria. The study used
structured questionnaire administered to 1, 197 randomly selected commercial cyclists across the
rural-urban divide in Kwara State. Descriptive statistics was used to analyse the data. The results
revealed that 96.93 percent of the commercial cyclists comply with the rule of safety helmet usage
while 3.1 percent do not comply with the rule in the urban areas. The noncompliance and
compliance rates of rural commercial motorcycle operators stand at 14 percent and 86 percent
respectively. Results from the survey showed further that all the commercial motorcyclists in
Kwara State, Nigeria are males. This indicates that women are not into commercial motorcycle
business probably due to the nature of the job. Okada riders who operate on full-time basis
constitute 62.19 percent of the total respondents while the rest operate on part-time basis.
Commercial cyclists who have secondary education are in the majority. The study therefore
recommends that road safety enforcement agents should educate the rural riders in order to
enforce compliance.