Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Transport & Health journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jth Perception of road hazards in a Tanzanian Secondary School before and after a traffic psychology intervention Paolo Perego a , Federica Biassoni a, ⁎ , Mark J. King b , Maria Rita Ciceri a a Department of Psychology, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Largo A. Gemelli 1, 20123 Milan, Italy b Centre for Accident Research and Road Safety – Queensland (CARRS-Q), Queensland University of Technology, 130 Victoria Park Road, Kelvin Grove, Queensland 4059, Australia ARTICLE INFO Keywords: Tanzania Training Road safety Road hazard ABSTRACT In Tanzania in 2014, 3760 people were killed on the roads, and 14,530 were injured (Tanzanian Traffic Police, 2015). One barrier to addressing this problem is the fatalistic belief, common in Africa, that a road crash happens ‘because it has to happen’. However, another possible reason is a lack of knowledge about sources of risk when using the road. The purpose of this research was to test a traffic psychology training program designed to improve risk perception regarding road use among school children in a rural area in Tanzania. 211 Students at a school in the Arusha region of Tanzania received a 2-h lesson developed and conducted by a traffic psychologist about road safety. The effectiveness of training in improving risk perception was measured through a Static Hazard Perception Task (SHPT) administered pre and post lesson. Results show that stu- dents identified a higher average number of hazards in the SHPT after the training than before. Notwithstanding limitations of the research, the results strongly suggest that applying a traffic psychology approach to road safety education fostered reflection in the students, about their experiences as road users. Implications for more effective road safety education in Africa are discussed. 1. Introduction 1.1. Road safety in Tanzania Almost all countries in Africa are categorized as having poor life expectancy (less than 70 years: www.worldlifeexpectancy.com). While hunger, malaria, AIDS, and internecine strife are well-known as contributors to low life expectancy in Africa, a recent report by the WHO (2015) demonstrates that one of the most significant problems facing Africa is mortality on the roads. About 26 people die every hour because of a road crash in Africa. This is almost two and a half times the European rate. In addition, the WHO also reports that road rules in African countries are largely disobeyed and that laws punishing driving while intoxicated are rarely applied. All this leads to significant mortality rates: 16% of deaths on the world's roads occur in Africa, despite the fact that the African continent accounts for only 2% of the world vehicle fleet. Tanzania is on the east coast of Africa and has a population of almost 50 million (National Bureau of Statistics, 2016). Tanzanian Police reported that in 2014, over 3760 people were killed on the roads, and a further 14,530 were injured in road related accidents (Tanzania Traffic Police, 2015) but the WHO (2015) estimates that the real figure is more than four times as much, with an estimated https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2018.05.101 Received 19 September 2017; Received in revised form 5 April 2018; Accepted 22 May 2018 ⁎ Corresponding author. E-mail addresses: paope79@yahoo.it (P. Perego), federica.biassoni@unicatt.it (F. Biassoni), mark.king@qut.edu.au (M.J. King), maria.ciceri@unicatt.it (M.R. Ciceri). Journal of Transport & Health xxx (xxxx) xxx–xxx 2214-1405/ © 2018 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Please cite this article as: Perego, P., Journal of Transport & Health (2018), https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jth.2018.05.101