No fewer than 5,707 road crashes were recorded in Nigeria between January and August this year, leaving 3,048 people dead and 17,446 others rescued. The statistic released by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) yesterday, showed a slight reduction from the figure released for the same period in 2015, where a total of 3,233 people died and 17,189 others were rescued alive.

Stating that the agency has deployed about 20,000 personnel, 697 patrol vehicles, 283 motorbikes, 76 ambulances and 22 tow trucks across the country to tackle traffic challenges during Sallah, FRSC’s boss, Boboye Oyeyemi said the figures of road crashes are unacceptable and must be brought down. The statistic showed that more people died in January (529) compare to July and August combined (395), while 496 died in February, 513 died in March, 363 in April, 367 in May and 385 others in June.

The FRSC, which stated that commercial vehicles account for most of the cases of road crashes, linking most cases to over speeding, said there is no going back on the implementation of its speed limit policy, which intends to moderate over speeding vehicles, particularly commercial vehicles. (The Guardian)

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