Evaluation of road accident cost for Rwanda: case study NRI (Kigali-Muhanga-Huye-Akanyaru road)”

Abstract

The study on Road Accident Cost for paved roads with a case study of NR1, focused on the main purpose to evaluate road traffic accident costs for Rwanda. This research was carried out in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of a degree of Master of Science in Highway Engineering and Management at the University of Rwanda, College of Science and Technology. A population of paved roads in Rwanda with a sample of NR1 was used for the sample. The methodology adopted was descriptive research method employing secondary data collected from RTDA, district hospitals along NR1, insurance companies and traffic police in charge of road crashes. Findings of the research indicated that the most vulnerable of the road accidents were pedestrians who accounted for 5.4% of the total road accidents followed by passengers who accounted for 34.9% of the total accidents and riders accounted for 19.8%. On the other side, the most Hotspot that accounted most of the road accidents were Nyabugogo that accounted for 20.8%; other Hotspots 19.8% and Mukobwamwiza accounted for 15.7% of the total road accidents. The Hotspots that accounted the least road accidents were Nkoto; Kivumu and Ntenyo that accounted for 9.8%; 10.1% and 11.6% respectively, while Musambira accounted for 12.2% of the total road accidents. The minimum cost percentage was 18.7% of the total costs in 2021 while the maximum cost percentage was observed as 21.8% of the total costs of the road accident in 2024. accident by component reveals that the most contributing factor was the insurance cost that comprised of 59% of the total road cost accidents cost and the least contributing factor was the police intervention that contributed to 10% of the total road accident cost. This clearly shows that in 2020 road wasted the amount of $ 1,498,450 on road traffic accidents, and in 2021 road accident cost was estimated to $ 1,347,434 and in 2022 the amount of $ 1,323,259 were spent on the same, in a year of 2023 the amount of $ 1,348,513 were spent on the same while in year 2024 amount of 1,379,061 were spent on road accident cost. Research objective Three was about to assess road traffic accident costs level, model development and give the significance of traffic accidents for policymakers. The total road crash cost was composed by medical costs covering transportation, medication, surgery, bed charges rehabilitation and mortuary covering a total of $ 948,985 representing 33.8% of the total crash cost recorded for a period of 5 years from 2020 to 2024 along the highway NR1.The property damage costs were categorized into vehicle repair cost; detention period cost, and both public and private damage costs with a total of $ 1,162,728 comprising of 41.4% of the total road crash cost while the traffic police activities covered wages of policemen in the field of traffic accidents Cost of police vehicles, and police administration costs relevant to traffic accidents. The total cost for the same period of time was amounted for $ 697,000 which represent 24.8% of the total cost of the NR1 road crash costs for the same period of time.