An accident is an unplanned, unforeseen and unexpected event that has a negative impact on all activities of the individual(s) concerned. An accident can result in death, injury, health hazard, and loss of property, damage to the environment, loss of production, time and morale, and a negative impact on good of the organization, society, family or any other persons concerned.

Accidents are a great concern to the public in all 14 Districts of Sierra Leone. Transportation in Sierra Leone occur in three forms, land, marine, and air, all of which (save air) have recorded an alarming rate of accidents over the past few years. Traffic accidents result in life and financial loss to the society. In Sierra Leone, traffic fatalities are comparable to other leading causes of unnatural death. The need for the analysis of the spatial distribution of traffic accidents, as an aid to select the most appropriate type of accident reduction programme (e.g. site, route and area plans) and assessing the effectiveness of such plans after implementation, is very important.

There is no systemic method of recording accident disasters in Sierra Leone. However, accident (road, maritime, aviation) disasters have been sourced from the DesInventar – a global Disaster Information Management System database that systematically collects, documents and analyses data about losses caused by disasters. Between 2006 and 2015, over 150 accidents were recorded, with over 40% of them occurring in Western Area Urban (Freetown) alone. A total of 418 traffic accident-related fatalities were recorded during that time, with a national fatality-to-event ratio of 2.4 (see table below). There’s anecdotal evidence that these figures can be construed as grossly underestimated given that not all accidents are reported and recorded in the country.

Historic accident disaster in Sierra Leone (Source: DesInventar)