Road transport accidents in Nigeria and the role of automotive active safety system

Analysis of road traffi c accidents revealed that most accidents are as a result of drivers’ errors. Over the years, active safety systems (ASS) were devised in vehicle to reduce the high level of road accidents, caused by human errors, leading to death and injuries.This study however evaluated the impacts of ASS inclusions into vehicles in Nigeria road transportation network. The objectives was to measure how ASS contributed to making driving safer and enhanced transport safety. Road accident data were collected, for a period of eleven years, from Lagos State Ministry of Economic Planning and Budget, Central Offi ce of Statistics. Quantitative analysis of the retrospective accident was conducted by computing the proportion of yearly number of vehicles involved in road accident to the total number of vehicles for each year. Results of the analysis showed that the proportion of vehicles involved in road accidents decreased from 16 in 1996 to 0.89 in 2006, the injured persons reduced from 15.58 in 1998 to 0.3 in 2006 and the death rate diminished from 4.45 in 1998 to 0.1 in 2006. These represented 94.4 %, 95 % and 95 % improvement respectively on road traffi c safety. It can therefore be concluded that the inclusions of ASS into design of modern vehicles had improved road safety in Nigeria automotive industry

Enhanced proactive planning approach: a crucial to an improved workers’ safety in Western Nigeria small scale industry

This study evaluated managements’ proactive planning approach (PPA) to enhance safety among workers in South-western Nigeria small scale industry (SSI). The main objective was to rate the managements’ efforts at eliminating risk among their employees. By worker participatory and psychological survey approach, three tools were used; workplace observation (visual), management safety culture (questionnaire) and managers interviews (oral). The survey included 200 workers, 120 supervisors and 80 managers, in 82 SSI. Four steps to a safety proactive action plans (PAP), (looking for clues, prioritization of identified potential hazard, making improvements to eliminate the risk and follow up), were rated by employees on a scale from 0 to 5. Paired t-test was used to appraise the significant difference between the managers’ mean scores rated by the supervisors and other workers. 77.1% of workers and 64.2% supervisors rated their managers as either “not done at all” or “poorly done”. Workers’ scores for managers PPA had statistically significantly lower ratings (mean = 1.09, SEM = 0.22) compared to that of the supervisors rating (mean = 1.55, SEM = 0.32), with t (14) = −1.185, p = 0.784. There is a closed poor performance perception gaps, of managers’ PPA, of the two groups of employees. It can be concluded that safety is not emphasized, by managers of SSI, as overriding priority and this may have contributed to high reported injuries among their workforce. Courses to enhance managements’ understanding for inclusion of safety among the leading priorities becomes necessary. This will reduce work-related risks and promotes occupational safety and health among the group of workers

Evaluation of Effectiveness of Manufacturing Safety Intervention; A Key to Successful Safety Planning and Management

Safety interventions (which entail a number of activities) are resourceful tools in the control or prevention of workplace accidents. Combination of these interventions achieved more results compared with individual application of these interventions. The cost effectiveness of these safety interventions/strategies is often considered a major interest to the leadership or management of an organization. This work hereby used retrospective accident analysis to determine the effectiveness indices (µk) of the identified strategies, thus determining the preventable number of accidents (Sk). Fifteen strategies (S1 to S15) were determined from the six safety interventions (Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), Training (Tr), Guarding (Gu), Accident Investigation (AI), Awareness (Aw) and Incentives (In)), out of which PPE and Tr were considered prominent. Their respective effectiveness indices (µ1 to µ15) were hereby calculated. It was revealed that µ15, µ11 and µ12 have highest effectiveness indices of 5.50×10-06 (Q/N), 5.46×10-06(Q/N) and 5. ×10-06 (Q/N) respectively. The effectiveness indices µ3 and µ4, however, have the lowest effectiveness indices of 3.50×10-06 (Q/N) and 3.52E×10-06 (Q/N). The highest effectiveness index reduced the highest number of accidents of 46 while lowest effectiveness index reduced the accidents by 19. Keywords: Safety Intervention, Effectiveness Index, Safety Strategy

MODELLING THE HAZARD CONTROL IN A WET PROCESS PLANT- A CASE OF CEMENT PLANT

Cement industry is responsible for approximately 5% of global anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions emitting nearly 900 kg of CO2 for every 1000 kg of cement produced. Effective control strategies to mitigate these emissions were discussed and a mathematical programming model able to suggest the best cost effective strategy was formulated. Control costs consisting of operating and retrofit costs along with the efficiency of control options are taken into account in the model. A representative case study from the cement industry was considered in order to illustrate the use of the model in giving optimal control strategies. The hazard control model was solved using commercial software called LP_SOLVE (Version 5.5) configured to apply the branch and bound algorithm. Efficiency improvement measures were the considered mitigation option and it was found to be effective options for reduction targets up to 18 %. Four efficiency improvement technologies were considered and a reduction of 18% amounting to almost 100,000 tonnes of emission was achieved with an increase of 14.3% and 9.1% in production and operating cost respectively. The findings of this study will help cement plant operators to reduce their emission level by implementing various retrofit options to suite intended targets and subsequently reducing environmental health risk