Identification of Cycles and Periodic Oscillations of Road Traffic Accidents Over Lagos State, Nigeria
Atubi, Augustus .O.

Abstract
The purpose of this study is to examine the identification of cycles and periodic oscillations of road traffic accidents over Lagos State, Nigeria and to suggest preventive and corrective safety measures towards reducing the traffic accidents in the study area. The power spectra for Ajeromi/Ifelodun, Epe, Ikeja, Mushin, Lagos Island and Lagos Mainland Local Government Areas show no regularity in the occurrence of road traffic accident patterns, although, 32.00 years is the most dominant cycle. Incidentally, these are local governments that are prone to accidents in Lagos State. The reported road traffic accidents over Lagos State were compared using analysis of variance (ANOVA) techniques. The results showed that for the two factors, Local Government Areas and years, the f-calculated of 11.84 and 27.63 respectively were higher than the F-tabular of 1.57 and 1.46 respectively at 0.05 level of significance. It then implies that the means for each of the factors, reported road traffic accidents across all the Local Government Areas in Lagos State and across different years, 1970-2001, were significantly different. Based on the findings, policy recommendations were proffered on how to reduce the ugly incidence of road traffic accidents in Lagos State and Nigeria in general.

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