Citation

Moonga MK, Hangoma P. medRxiv 2021; 2021: e2021.02.16.21251202.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2021, The Author(s), Publisher Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, BMJ Publishing Group, Yale University)

DOI

10.1101/2021.02.16.21251202

PMID

unavailable

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 accidents in Zambia and other LMICs.

Language: en