Nigeria ranks one of the countries in the world with the highest accident rates, especially when measured by whiplash associated disorders, whereas, traffic safety education rate, data and information been widely known as preventive indicators have been grossly neglected. In Nigeria, traffic safety enlightenment, awareness, political understanding and appreciation of the problem's magnitude are lacking. This study, therefore, seeks to understand and document the fact that accident causation factors in Nigeria relate more to the problem of development, poverty, knowledge and education as evidenced in most other developing countries. Among the primary accident causation factors on Nigerian roads are: - lack of a transportation system or multi-model integration, - sub-standard and obsolete vehicles and road furniture, - poor road maintenance, investment and engineering management, - paucity of road users' and drivers' knowledge, skill, enlightenment and education of the road use. This paper submits that Nigeria being a developing nation requires purely primitive strategies being cost effective (health wise) than curative measures. It is in this light that an enduring, comprehensive and sustainable traffic safety educational programmes information base and data inventory, analysis and implementations form the focus of this study. This effort will provide basic guidelines framework and implementation procedure for a successful prevention of whiplash associated disorder resulting from road traffic crashes in Nigeria and other parts of the world. (A) Paper to the 1st International ESAR Conference on 3rd/4th September 2004 at Hannover Medical School (Germany), Session: Accident Prevention and Causation - Part II. For the covering abstract see ITRD D355457.
Abstract