Road speeding and safety in public transport: Evidence from speed Governor usage in Rwanda

Abstract

In general, Road traffic accidents, became one of the major challenges for transport safety across the World, a problematic growing concern for most Rwandan in recent years as well. This is because of the enormous negative effects of accidents on human lives, their properties, the environment as well as the economy at large. Government of Rwanda has established enforcement mechanism to reduce the road traffic accidents but the trends in the number of accidents continue to increase and number of injuries and fatality are alarming. Accordingly, this study focuses on evaluating the relationship between the introduction of speed governor and the change in road traffic accidents over the period of four years. Monthly time series data covering the period 2016 to 2019 on road traffic accidents and speed governors installed was used. From the statistical viewpoint, the differences in differences estimates revealed a negative relationship between speed governors and road traffic accidents. The results of estimation show that, on average, an additional speed governor decreases road human fatalities by 0.161 points when controlling both district and month fixed effects. Though, the pattern of reduction is still low. As policy implication, there is a need to enhance the operations of the traffic motor vehicle mechanical inspection department to ensure that any vehicle involved in car accident is re checked before resuming its activities to avoid causing accidents due to vehicle defects. There is also a need to widen the scope of recorded data on other potential factors during incidents that contribute to road traffic accidents such as law enforcement measures, driver’s behaviour and road infrastructure conditions for a richer analysis.