Nigeria: Road Disaster Claims Over 2,800 Citizens In 6 Months

Going by the official figures of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), more than 2,800 Nigerians had their lives short-circuited by road disasters within six months last year. According to the data agency, out of the figure, 1,538 died in the fourth quarter of 2018.

At leats 1,331 others died in the second quarter of 2018, a report by the NBS Road Transport Data (Q2 2018) had said. Out of this figure, 1,257 Nigerians that got killed were adults, representing 94% while the remaining 74 were children, representing 6.00% of the figure.

The data equally revealed that ‘’1,047 male Nigerians, representing 79%, got killed in road crashes in Q2 while 284 female Nigerians, representing 21% got killed.’’

NBS in their report identified speed violation as the major cause of crashes in the three months under review: ‘’The Q2 2018 road transport data reflected that 2,608 road crashes occurred within the quarter under review.

‘’Speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes in Q2 and it accounted for 50.65% of the total road crashes reported. Tyre burst and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 8.59% and 8.40% of the total road crashes recorded.’’

Continuing, NBS said that a total of 8,437 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded in the second quarter of 2018, pointing out, ‘’7,946 of the 8,437 Nigerians that got injured, representing 94% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 491 Nigerians, representing 6% of the figure are children. 6,415 male Nigerians, representing 76%, got injured in road crashes in Q2 while 2,022 female Nigerians, representing 24% got injured.’’

However, the NBS Road Transport Data for the fourth Quarter, 2018 posted on its website said a total of 2,532 road accidents were recorded in the period under review. The report said 92 per cent (1,422) of the 1, 538 people that died were adults, while the remaining eight per cent (116 people) were children.

According to the agency, 79 per cent (1,209) of the figure that died were males, while 21 per cent (329) were females, adding that a total of 8,406 Nigerians were recorded to be injured in road accidents in the period.

The report also said 93 per cent (7,815) of the 8,406 injured persons were adult, while the remaining seven per cent (591) were children, and that 74 per cent (6,194) that got injured in the quarter under review were males, while 26 per cent (2,212) were females.

Again, NBS attributed speed violation as the major cause of road accidents in the fourth quarter, 2018 which accounted for 52 per cent of the total road accidents reported, saying dangerous driving and wrongful overtaking followed closely as they both accounted for nine per cent and eight per cent of the total road accidents.

Furthermore, the report estimated vehicle population in the country as at fourth quarter, 2018 was put at 11.82 million with the total population estimate of the country put at 198 million in 2018, an indication that Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is 0.06.

In the mean time, statistic on the category of vehicles involved in road accidents in the quarter reflected that 60.18 per cent of vehicles were commercial (2,407), while 38.30 per cent (1,532) of the vehicles involved were private, with 1.50 per cent (60) belonging to government and the diplomatic community, one.

A total of 185,883 national drivers licenses, according to the report, were produced in the quarter under review, with Lagos, the commercial capital of Nigeria, and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) producing the highest number of drivers’ license, while Zamfara and Kebbi states produced the least number.

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