School Area Road Safety Assessment and Improvements (SARSAI) programme reduces road traffic injuries among children in Tanzania

Purpose: To determine the impact of a paediatric road traffic injury (RTI) prevention programme in urban Sub-Saharan Africa.

Setting: Dares Salaam, Republic of Tanzania.

Methods: Household surveys were conducted in catchment areas around 18 primary schools in Dar es Salaam, Republic of Tanzania; the catchment areas were divided into control and intervention groups. Collected data included basic demographic information on all school-aged household members and whether or not they had been involved in an RTI in the previous 12 months, and, if so, what the characteristics of that RTI were. Based on these findings, a separate road safety engineering site analysis and consultation with the communities and other stakeholders, an injury-prevention programme was developed and implemented, consisting of infrastructure enhancements and a site-specific educational programme. The programme was initially implemented at the intervention schools. After 1 year, data were collected in the same manner. The control group received the same intervention after follow-up data were collected.

Results: Data were collected on 12 957 school-aged children in the baseline period and 13 555 school-aged children in the post-intervention period, in both the control and intervention communities. There was a statistically significant reduction in RTIs in the intervention group and a non-significant increase in RTI in the control group. The greatest reduction was in motorcycle-pedestrian RTI, private vehicle-pedestrian RTI and morning RTI.

Conclusion: The programme demonstrated a significant reduction in paediatric RTI after its implementation, in very specific ways. This study demonstrates that for a reasonable investment, scientifically driven injury-prevention programmes are feasible in resource-limited settings with high paediatric RTI rates.