FRSC boss Boboye Oyeyemi
10, 637 die in 31,116 road accidents recorded in Nigeria – FRSC
Data released by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) shows that 14,773 persons died from 31,116 road accidents recorded between January 2019 and December 2021 in Nigeria, as the agency also disclosed that a total of 106,256 persons were involved in these crashes within the same period under review.
Aside from the deaths, 91,483 persons sustained varying degrees of injury in the crashes recorded.
The data shows that 2021 has the highest cases of road traffic crashes, compared with previous years, with 10,637 accidents involving 35,791 people recorded. Of this number, 5,101 people were killed while 30,690 people were rescued with different degrees of injuries.
According to the statistics, Ogun has the most dangerous roads in the country as the state recorded the highest road traffic crashes with 1,026 cases in 2021.
The FRSC data also shows that Bayelsa State has the safest roads as it recorded the lowest number of road traffic crashes with 40 cases.
In 2020, 10,522 road traffic crashes were recorded between January and December.
A breakdown of the data shows that 4,794 persons died while 28, 449 others were injured.
The year before it, 2019, was no better though it had the fewest number of road traffic cases in three years with 9,957 cases. But more people died in 2019 (4,878) compared with 2020. The data shows that 32,344 were also injured from road traffic crashes in 2019.
Public Education Officer of the FRSC, Bisi Kazeem attributed road crashes to several factors including over-speeding, route violation, mechanical defect, drunk driving and dangerous driving, as he also disclosed that the corps is broadening the scope of sensitisation to change bad driving behaviours and has introduced result-oriented policies, particularly those that will eliminate speed-related crashes since it has been the major cause of crashes at the moment.
“The corps has continually put in place mechanisms that will prevent road crashes. Some of these preventive measures are; enhanced visibility, broadened, strengthened and sustained stakeholders’ engagement and collaboration, improved personnel capacity in road safety management, effective patrol operations, and of course widened public enlightenment campaigns,” he said adding that strategic interventionist approaches are always subjected to reviews to meet the dynamics and challenges of the moment.
