The region accounts for approximately one-fifth of global road fatalities despite possessing merely three per cent of the world’s registered vehicles
The World Health Organization (WHO) and the Centre for Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID) have commenced the development of Africa’s first road safety media guidelines. These guidelines aim to transform how newsrooms across the continent report on road crashes and to strengthen accountability for preventable fatalities.
The initiative officially launched on Tuesday during the inaugural African Media Forum on Road Safety in Abuja. The forum convened twenty editors, journalists, and media professionals from Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, and Uganda, alongside prominent road safety experts.
Expected to be finalized by mid-2027, the guidelines will offer an evidence-based framework for reporting on road safety that extends beyond casualty figures and the immediate circumstances of crashes.
Organizers stated that the initiative will encourage journalists to investigate the broader factors contributing to road deaths, including road design and infrastructure, vehicle safety, speed management, traffic laws and enforcement, emergency response, and post-crash care.
Africa’s road safety burden
Addressing the opening of the three-day forum, Pavel Ursu, WHO Country Representative in Nigeria, characterized road traffic injuries as a critical public health and development challenge demanding urgent, coordinated action.
Ursu noted that nearly 250,000 people die on roads in the WHO African Region annually, which equates to approximately one death every two minutes.
He highlighted that the region accounts for roughly one-fifth of global road fatalities despite having only three per cent of the world’s registered vehicles.
According to WHO data, Nigeria records the highest number of road traffic deaths in the region, exceeding 36,000 fatalities each year.
Ursu emphasized that the framing of road crashes by journalists can significantly influence public understanding, accountability, and the demand for interventions.
“This initiative is about closing the gap between science and narrative. It involves correcting misperceptions regarding an urgent, preventable health crisis and driving accountability for life-saving action,” he said.
He added that media leaders possess the ability to shift the conversation surrounding road safety and amplify demand for policies proven to prevent deaths and serious injuries.
Changing how crashes are reported
Akintunde Babatunde, Executive Director of CJID, asserted that editorial choices determine whether road crashes are presented merely as personal tragedies or examined as broader public policy failures.
“Through this forum, CJID and the WHO will collaborate with editors, journalists, and influencers across Africa to establish a shared, evidence-based standard for covering road safety. This ensures that reporting begins holding power to account and becomes part of the solution, rather than simply recording the loss,” Babatunde said.
Dapo Olorunyomi, Publisher of PREMIUM TIMES and Chief Executive Officer of CJID, explained that the forum seeks to disrupt a common pattern in African newsrooms where road crashes are largely reported as isolated events, typically concluding with casualty numbers and statements from law enforcement agencies.
Olorunyomi argued that journalists must interrogate the underlying causes of a crash rather than simply recording what occurred.
He pointed to crucial questions regarding the condition and design of roads, lighting, appropriate speed, vehicle condition, enforcement of existing laws, and emergency response protocols.
He further questioned the common explanation that a driver simply “lost control,” asking whether such descriptions adequately explain why crashes occur.
Olorunyomi stated that evidence supporting the project suggests this is a widespread problem across Africa, with current reporting paying insufficient attention to infrastructure, regulation, enforcement, and other underlying factors.
Journalists to develop guidelines
Olorunyomi clarified that the guidelines would not simply be authored by the WHO and CJID and handed down to African newsrooms.
Instead, editors and journalists who make daily editorial decisions will actively participate in developing the framework.
“We do not want to sit somewhere in Abuja with the WHO and CJID and draft a document telling African journalists how to report on road safety. The editors and journalists who make these decisions every day must shape it,” he said.
He noted that the process will continue following the three-day forum, involving a core group of editors, further review, and eventual adoption by newsrooms.
He added that journalists will also receive support and mentorship to produce stories using the framework, providing an opportunity to evaluate what works and what requires improvement.
Ursu stated that the initiative represents the beginning of a framework developed by African media professionals for their colleagues.
“This forum marks the beginning of the development of Africa’s first road safety media guidelines, created by editors, journalists, and content creators for their peers,” he said.
“We hope these guidelines will become a trusted standard for newsrooms across the continent, strengthening public demand, accountability, and action to save lives.”
The forum builds upon WHO’s broader road safety journalism initiative, supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies. Over 5,000 journalists have been trained in countries with high numbers of road fatalities, with participating journalists from Ghana, Nigeria, and India producing award-winning reports.
Enforcement alone cannot solve the problem
Shehu Mohammed, Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), stated that addressing road deaths requires more than enforcement by road safety authorities alone.
Mr Mohammed, represented by Deputy Corps Marshal Training Department, Abiodun Akinlade, emphasized that stronger partnerships are needed among the media, government agencies, transport operators, civil society, development partners, and the public.
“At the Federal Road Safety Corps, we recognize that enforcement alone cannot solve the road-safety challenge,” he said.
He urged the media to look beyond individual crashes and pay greater attention to their causes, prevention, and the responsibilities of institutions and other stakeholders.
“I therefore urge this forum to move beyond reporting crashes to telling the larger road-safety story: why crashes occur, how they can be prevented, and what every stakeholder can do to save lives,” he said.
The FRSC chief noted that sustained and responsible reporting could help expose dangerous practices, promote safer behaviors, and demand accountability from relevant stakeholders.
