ABSTRACT
The purpose of this study was to examine the spatial analysis of road accident in the Bamenda municipality, North West Cameroon. This study employed descriptive method to analyze the spatial pattern of road accident in Bamenda town, identify the hotspots of road accidents in Bamenda town, its causes, consequences and to suggest mitigations strategies to fight road accidents in Bamenda town. The results revealed that, accidents mostly occurred around roundabout in Bamenda town and some of the causes where poor nature of road, over speeding, Reckless driving, heavy rainfall and cloud cover. This often leads to socio-economic implications as the consequences as traffic- related air and noise pollution often causes severe adverse health impacts on the population and a lot of financial expenditures are made. Some of the measures suggested to mitigate road accidents in Bamenda town were, Constant maintenance of the road by municipal authorities, Establishment of speed brakes in accident risk zones to reduce accidents, Expansion of the size of the present single lane, Sensitization and traffic control. After a deep analysis we came out with some recommendations for the population, government and EDGE Company in Bamenda to ameliorate this phenomenon.
KEYWORD: Traffic Control, Road Accident

CHAPTER ONE
GENERAL INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study Today, road accidents remain blight both for public authorities in all countries around the world and for international organizations. Indeed, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) about 1.35 million people are killed on the roads worldwide. More specifically in Africa, road accidents are the second leading cause of death after malaria. Thus, Africa accounts for about 27% of the 1.35 million deaths worldwide for just over 2% of vehicles This situation can be explained by a combination of several factors, the weight or importance of which varies fromcountry to country (World Health Organization 2018).
The problems of road accident rates currently belong to the most important issues of health and social policy of the countries in all continents. Nowadays, a fatal road traffic incident occurs on average every 50 s, and road traffic injuries are sustained every 2s (Goniewicz, Nogalski, Khayesi, Lübek et al, 2012) . According to the WHO 2013, every year, nearly 1.3 million people lose their life on roads worldwide, whereas 20–50 million sustain severe trauma, the majority of them require long-term and costly treatment. Road accidents, apart from grief and suffering, cause tremendous social and economic loss, absorbing 1–3 % of the gross domestic product of most countries. Numerous consequences of road accidents may be effectively prevented; however, this requires continuous efforts for new methods and programmes aimed at improving road traffic safety. The WHO predicts that without undertaking appropriate measures, road accidents will result in the death of approximately 1.9 million people annually before the year 2020 .The objective of the study was to identify the most frequent, reoccurring causes of road accidents, as well as to present actions which should be a basis for strategies an programmes aimed at improving road traffic safety on the local and global levels (World Health Organization 2013).
In Africa roads are the world’s deadliest for a multitude of reasons. All African countries except South Africa meet either none or just one of the United Nation’s seven main vehicle safety standards. According to 2013, world health organization report; over 85% of all deaths and 90% of disability adjusted life years lost from road traffic injuries occurred in low and middle-income countries, which have only 47% of the world’s registered vehicles .According to the 2015 Global status report on road safety, the WHO African Region had the highest rate of fatalities from road traffic injuries worldwide at 26.6 per 100 000 population for the year
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2013. Sub-Saharan Africa was the global capital for road traffic deaths. Getting into a car accident causes several unwanted consequences, including slight injuries, serious injuries, and loss of life and property damage. Categorically; human, mechanical etc (World Health Organization 2018). .
In Cameroon, a middle-income country and therefore prone to road accidents, although the mortality rate has declined sharply from 28.1% in 2007 to 20.6% in 2015, road accidents remain the second leading cause of death after malaria (World Health Organization 2009) . In this context, although road accidents occur throughout the country, they are concentrated around three main roads due to the importance of the cities linked by them. As a result, road accidents have a very high socio-economic cost. In human terms, there have been just over 1000 deaths and over 6000 injuries. On the economic level, the economic losses suffered by Cameroon due to road accidents represent nearly 100 billion CFA francs per year, equivalent to 1% of the GDP of this period (ECA-UN 2018). In the light of the above, it is becoming essential to conduct a study to identify the explanatory factors for road accidents in order to draw up a policy which, if it does not eliminate road accidents, will reduce them or provide a framework for their occurrence (ECA-UN 2018).According to the latest WHO data published in 2018 Road Accidents Deaths in Cameroon reached 6,873 or 3.26% of total deaths. The age adjusted Death Rate is 35.90 per 100,000 of population ranks Cameroon 29 in the world.
The problem of road accidents in developing countries like Cameroon and Bamenda in particular is now becoming a call for concern.This is more so as preventive measures have not kept pace with economic progress and development. Cameroon like other developing countries is handicapped by an urban facility planning and implementation that is far from aligning with good planning principles and practices. This exhibits a dearth of know-how and technology in human agglomerations of deficient traffic flow foresight. This lack of planning is accentuated by heralding economic, social and environmental challenges in which urban functional space grabbing and sprawl invite an uneasy connection between city service provision and consumption areas. The commonplace structure less patterns become the urban development paradigm with the chaos it imposes on its flow of goods and persons. The new cohabitation rush and rushing off hours by myriads of urban road users had as effect traffic cramming and road junction tailbacks is most observable along the 13 km road linking Bamenda III to Tubah and the 24 km road through Ntarikon in Bamenda II to Bafut (Figure 1.1).


1.2 Statement of Research Problem

Today accidents are among the leading causes of death. Deaths due to Road Accidents are increasing at an alarming rate throughout the town of Bamenda the Northwest region of Cameroon have over the past years witness a numerous number and increase in the rate of accidents that have lead to lost of lives and many material damages .These loses have being cost mostly by environmental factors, weather conditions, locations and environments, road structure, vehicle technical failures as well as drivers’ behaviours and attitudes. Likewise, economics condition such as high Inflation rate and costs of living are part of the factors to higher risk of road accidents directly or indirectly. Weather can be extremely dangerous which can destroy the whole transportation systems or road linkages. Some of these can be heavy rains, thick hazes, and , hot climate and wind turmoil. Usually, speed driving in raining seasons, hot daylight or heavy haze can contribute to road accident because of driver may easily lose his control and judgment. Meanwhile, speeding during a night condition also can result into fatal traffic accidents.
Traffic congestion has a big effect on workers of both private and public sectors since wasted time is money lost. There are late arrival for appointments and business meetings. The cumulative effect of the lateness sums up into s gruesome economic loss and a ruin to a staggering urban economy that is relatively at daggers drawn between political turmoil since 2016 and massive unemployment for dearth of veritable manufacturing enterprises. Tiredness in class, lateness to school and psychological stress cuts down on the overall staff and students’ productivity in school and at examinations. To avoid these side effects road users at times engage in competing and hurrying transportation alternatives which often end up in accidents such that the victims may suffer from psycho-traumatic effects and even post-traumatic disorders let alone those who lose their lives and/or jobs ( Regional Delegation of Transport for the North West, 2013-2014). That traffic congestion has far reaching consequences beyond where it operates is indicative of the fact that motor biking as a partial solution which significantly contributes to better out the bad side effects of congestion.
1.3 Research Questions.

1.3.1 Main Research Question i.

How is the spatial pattern of road accident in Bamenda town?
1.3.2 Specific Research Questions

i. What are the hotspots of accident in Bamenda town?

ii. What are the main causes of road accidents in Bamenda?
iii. What are the consequences of road accident?
iv. Which mitigations strategies can be used to fight road accident in Bamenda?
1.4 Research Objectives

1.4.1 Main Research Objective

i. To analyze the spatial pattern of road accident in Bamenda Town
1.4.2 Specific Research Objectives

i. To identify the hotspots of road accidents in Bamenda town
ii. To highlight the main causes of road accidents in Bamenda
iii. To identify the consequences of road accidents in Bamenda town
iv. To suggest mitigations strategies to fight road accidents in Bamenda