Nigeria road safety signs and their meanings: ranges of fine for violation
1. Road safety signs in Nigeria
As we have categorized and described thoroughly in our recent post about road signs in Nigeria, there are 3 types of traffic signs:
- Regulatory sign, including prohibitory sign and mandatory direction sign
- Informative sign
- Warning sign
Each type has their distinctive purposes as well as designs. While prohibitory signs are often circular and painted in red, informative signs vary in their shapes and colours. On the other hand, warning content is usually noted in yellow triangular signs with red border.
And while informative signs are often seen as nice-to-have travel instructions, road safety signs and their meanings are a topic of interest to Nigerian road users who are fed with news about accidents happening somewhere in their towns almost every day.
Road signs in Nigeria can be classified into 3 groups
To know exactly how to recognize type and meaning of each road symbol plus important regulations, please refer to our previous posts on safe driving for detailed listing and description. Within the scope of this article, Naijauto.com will present ranges of fine and punishment for disobeying road safety sign boards, then demonstrating common road safety symbols with names as a reminder.
2. Ranges of fine when violating regulations and traffic signs in Nigeria
Of course we can hardly include all forms of fine and punishment for every case but we will summarize the most frequently-caught offenses.
This is issued by Nigerian Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and implemented in 2 primary forms: immediate fine and accumulated penalty points. The point system for driving is applied to reduce the times one may break the rule. Along with severe fine, the minus points also prove their effectiveness in supporting marshals with daily traffic management.
When the total of penalty points in a driver’s record reaches a certain number, it will be translated to more serious punishments like retaining driving license.
For some chronic cases, fine and penalties points aren't enough though
Below are the fine table for common wrongful actions, followed by the interpretation of driving point system:
| Fine system for traffic offenses | ||
|---|---|---|
| Offense | Fine | Penalty points |
| Traffic light/ sign violation | N2,000 | 2 |
| Wrongful overtaking | N3,000 | 3 |
| Construction area speed limit violation | N3,000 | 3 |
| Unauthorized tampering or removal of road signs | N5,000 | 5 |
| Speed limit violation | N5,000 | 5 |
| Road marking violation | N5,000 | 5 |
| Route violation | N10,000 | 10 |
| Other offenses | N3,000 | 2 |
| Implications of driving penalty points | ||
|---|---|---|
| Total of penalty points | Implications | |
| 10 – 14 | Warning | |
| 15 - 20 | Driving license suspended | |
| 21 or above | Driving license withdrawn | |
3. Pictures of road safety signs in Nigeria
When mentioning traffic safety signs, we tend to associate them with something urgent and dangerous. That’s why we will not include below the informative signs whose purpose is to show directions to common places like rest area, petrol station or even ambulance station. Most of these street signs are straightforward with notes written clearly on them, so don’t worry if you need to interpret some.
Many of our Nigerian street signs are adopted from the standard regulations from Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices (MUTCD) in the North America. This is to ensure the uniformity among different countries in the world. Saying this, we mean you must understand and memorize road symbols for your benefits not just in Nigeria but in case you can drive abroad one day.
Let the game begin!
Make sure you hover at the road safety signs imagesthen guess their meaning before reading their captions. Repeat the procedure with this set of road safety signs with names until you can remember all these crucial symbols.
Above is the "Yield" sign, ordering you to give the right-of-way for other vehicles
Easy huh? Just a stop sign, commonly seen at intersections
Make sure you know how to negotiate a roundabout
As you see, we have pedestrian crossing ahead
This warns you of an intersection with minor road
Prohibitory sign: No U-turn
Prepare to enter 4-lane 2-way divided high-way
No entry for all vehicles
Now you know your max speed limit is 80 km/h
This says No Parking, it can be reserved for the bicycle lane
Watch out for road works ahead
This sign prohibits all kinds of motor vehicles
You’re entering areas with reduced visibility
We end with this one: Stay alert with crosswinds
4. Final advice
There’s no advice other than learning all these Nigeria road safety signs and their meanings. Not to avoid fine or punishment, but to assure your own safety, you should pay more attention to these street signs next time. Hope the illustration of road safety symbols with names above can assist you somehow in memorizing these important road markings.
Adapted from naijauto.com
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