Nelson A.Osuala [8 December 2016]
As the year is drawing to an end, with the "..Ember" months and all its attendant negativities, an assessment of all the road accidents and the lives claimed has been done.
According to Dr Boboye Oyeyemi, a Senior Officer serving in the Federal Road Safety Commission(FRSC), recently argued on Wednesday that not less than 770 road traffic crashes on Nigerian Roads involves 4,365 Petrol tankers and Heavy duty trailers which had killed over 1,048 people from January to November 2016.
The Corps Marshall, while speaking at the Interactive session with stakeholders of the road transport sector in Abuja, informed that about 4,365 people were also severely injured in the period under review.
According to our correspondence, who quoted the Marshall as saying that 'Road accident collisions and crashes involving tankers and trailers had been on the increase since 2014 as 1,862 people have been killed while about 1,285 deaths were recorded in 2015 alone.
This troubling revelational statistics goes to confirm our skepticism which is the bitter truth that Nigerian roads are Death traps. But we are not shying away from the fact that most of these accidents were caused by reckless driving and disobedience to road traffic laws.
In the words of Oyeyemi,
“On comparative notes, it was observed that while there was 31.9 per cent reduction in road traffic crashes between 2014 and 2015, 38.6 per cent was recorded between January and November this year.
“While the rates of tankers and trailers’ involvement were 15.5 per cent and 0.14 per cent respectively within the period.
” The summary of crashes involving tankers, trailers and trucks from week one to 48 2016 show 14,984 people were involved in a total of 7934 crashes.
“Among these, tankers recorded over 252 crashes; trailers 518; and trucks 1,276, while other vehicles accounted for 10884, bringing the number of crashes vehicles to 12,959 killing 1,748 and leaving 6,365 injured,”
he said.
He however intimated the public that the FRSC will continue to put measures that would help to ensure safety on our roads while urging all road users and drivers to ensure that they drive within speed limits and obey all road traffic laws to avoid accidents and incessant deaths on our roads.
Source: Vanguard
Nelson A.Osuala
Is a Blogger & the Associate Editor of Negroidhaven.org
(Negroidhaven)
