Prevalence, precision, and road safety implications of using faulty speedometers among commercial drivers in Ghana

Abstract

ABSTRACT Vehicular speed is a significant risk factor for road crashes globally. The first objective was to establish the proportion of motorists who drive with faulty speedometers. Second, the study sought to establish procedures used to determine speeds when speedometers are defective. The third objective was to establish the precision with which motorists determine driving speeds with faulty speedometers. Convenience sampling was used to interview 124 professional drivers at 16 bus terminals in Kumasi to understand their speeding behaviors and perceptions on the accuracy of using defective speedometers. Secondly, drivers using defective speedometers were purposively nested for real-life driving tests in which their self-reported speeds were concurrently compared with actual speed measurements made with android-speedometers. Results show that 58% of drivers used defective speedometers. Ninety-six percentof the drivers with defective speedometers were confident that they could precisely tell their travelling speeds through procedures such as driving experiences, personal judgment, intruding wind, engine sound, and poking hands outside cars, thereby underestimating their actual speeds. In the driving tests, mean self-reported speed (58.7 ± 5.2 km/h) was significantly lower than measured speed (64.6 ± 8.9 km/h; p = 0.0003). This research has implications for road safety enforcement, education, and advocacy.