# Predicting Road Crash Severity in Nigeria Using ML Optimization Techniques
- This project tackles Nigeria's high road traffic fatality rate (41,709 annually) using FRSC Road Transport Data from the National Bureau of Statistics
- The dataset includes 481 records with causative factors (e.g., speeding 56.3%, tire bursts) and crash severity (fatal/non-fatal) across Q3 2021–Q3 2024.
- It implements optimized ML models (SVM, XGBoost) and neural networks with regularization to predict severity, addressing class imbalance with SMOTE.
- The goal is to improve FRSC interventions, aligning with Nigeria’s National Road Safety Strategy II.
**Project Scope:** I first started out with cleaning and engineering this data into 8 percentage-based features (e.g., `SPV_PCT` for speeding), addressing a severe 477:4 class imbalance with SMOTE, and developing a suite of machine learning models like Support Vector Machines (SVM), XGBoost, and neural networks with regularization.
## Project Structure
```
├── data/
│ └── Road Transport Data Q3 2024.xlsx
├── model_architecture/
│ └── Road Traffic Model Architecture.png
├── saved_models/
│ ├── no_optimization_model.keras
│ ├── optimized_nn1_model.keras
│ ├── optimized_nn2_model.keras
│ └── xgboost_best_model.pkl
├── Summative_Intro_to_ml_[Excel_Asaph]_assignment.ipynb
└── README.md
```
## Dataset
The dataset is derived from the **FRSC Road Transport Data** collection, accessible via the National Bureau of Statistics Microdata Catalog (
microdata.nigerianstat.gov.…). It is available for download as an Excel file here: `data/Road Transport Data Q3 2024.xlsx`, with the latest update on May 09, 2025
- **Features and Target:**
- **Crash Data Features:**
- `FATAL`: Number of fatal crashes.
- `SERIOUS`: Number of serious crashes.
- `MINOR`: Number of minor crashes.
- `TOTAL CASES`: Total crash incidents.
- `NUMBER INJURED`: Number of injured individuals.
- ` …