Barely three months earlier than the Christmas competition, Nigerians, significantly those that will embark on journeys by road in the course of the festive interval, are already apprehensive and anxious concerning the rising spate of accidents on the roads.
This adopted a report by the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, in August that Nigeria misplaced 24 lives every day between January and June this yr.
The cumulative quantity of lives misplaced throughout the first six months of the yr, in accordance with the FRSC, is 4, 387, a determine that interprets to a median of 731 fatalities every month or about 24 lives misplaced every day.
Prior to the August report, the Commission, had in April, disclosed that 1,349 folks had been killed in road accidents between January 1 and April 12 this yr.
According to the April report, 2,463 crashes occurred in the course of the interval. The FRSC additional stated the crash concerned 3,965 autos conveying 16,102 folks, and out of that quantity, 1,349 folks had been killed, whereas 7,744 received injured.
The FRSC Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, who famous that the road crashes occurred throughout the 36 states of Nigeria plus the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, stated: “From January to June, a total of 4,387 people were killed as a result of road traffic crashes. The Corps also recorded 14,108 injuries from the crashes within the same period.”
A guidelines of a couple of main road crashes for the reason that starting of this yr, lends credence to the authenticity of the FRSC’s worrisome report.
In January 2023, a tragic motor accident claimed the lives of 18 folks and injured about 40 others in Illela Local Government Area of Sokoto State.
The accident concerned a truck carrying passengers and a herd of cattle.
On Sunday, January 28, no fewer than 11 individuals had been additionally roasted to demise when a truck collided with a business passenger bus in Ondo State. The accident which occurred on Soka Bridge, alongside the Benin-Ore Expressway within the Odigbo Local Government Area of the State, was blamed on ‘one-way driving.’
Again, on March 26 and 27, two separate road accidents occurred in Kebbi State. The first one on March 26 occurred in Liba, close to Gonan Rogo in Kebbi State, whereas the second on March 27, occurred within the state’s Bunza area.
According to the Kebbi State Command of the FRSC, 35 lives had been misplaced in each accidents, whereas 40 folks had been rescued with a number of others sustaining lethal accidents.
On Saturday, April 8, greater than 15 folks had been burnt to demise in an auto-crash alongside the Port Harcourt-Enugu freeway in Enugu State.
According to an official assertion from the FRSC, the victims had been burnt past recognition within the accident which occurred at about 8:20 pm. The autos concerned within the crash had been an 18-seater Toyota bus and a Mercedes truck.
On Thursday, April 13, seven passengers had been burnt to demise, when a business bus caught fireplace on the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. The FRSC officers stated seven of the 27 passengers had been burnt past recognition.
In a associated growth, the FRSC stated 24 individuals had been killed, whereas 354 others sustained accidents in road crashes in Gombe State between January and March 2023.
Everyday, folks lose their lives on the road because of this of accidents. Life has turn into so low-cost in Nigeria that it’s wasted with reckless abandon on the roads and no one is being held liable for that.
The sight of charred, and typically, roasted our bodies of human beings on main highways not generate goose pimples, neither does it arouse any iota of horror within the minds of onlookers as a result of it has turn into a commonplace phenomenon. It has been accepted as a manner of life as a result of folks will rapidly attribute such incidents to the need of God. Critical populations of Nigerians, starting from the kids, the youth to the aged, are wasted every day on our roads.
Although Nigeria prides itself as the enormous of Africa, accessible statistics have proven that different international locations on the continent don’t report such a excessive quantity of deaths from road accidents of their respective international locations.
Recent examine of road accident developments in Nigeria between the interval 1960 and 1989 revealed a pointy improve in deadly accident prevalence. Between 1960 and 1969, it was noticed that over 18,000 deaths occurred because of this of road accidents. But, between 1980 and 1989, the determine had elevated to about 5 instances, that’s greater than 92,000 deaths, which when damaged down into additional fraction will quantity to greater than 10, 000 deaths each year. Today, we’re speaking about 12, 000 deaths each year.
From the accessible knowledge, which may greatest be thought to be conservative estimates, Nigeria has a critical and rising road accident drawback that’s concerning the worst on the earth. Between 1971 and 1985, which is a interval of 15 years, legislative and different measures adopted by the federal government to fight the ugly development, proved ineffective. And so, in 1988, the Federal Road Safety Commission was established to regulate road accidents in Nigeria.
But, with the institution of FRSC and its much-touted efforts to stem the rising charge of road accidents, the scourge appears to be on the rise yr in, yr out. So, the questions that agitate the minds of Nigerians are: “What are we not doing right? Why has the road accident rate been rising every year? How can it be curtailed to the barest minimum?”
The FRSC’s spokesperson, Kazeem, stated the Commission had deployed numerous methods, together with motorised patrol alongside the vital corridors as half of the methods to fight road crashes.
“These sets of patrol operatives play a key role in speed control to halt speed-related crashes on the highways. Our operational activities have been given an adequate boost through the injection of new vehicles for enhanced visibility on the highways and to enforce compliance by all road users.
“The public enlightenment aspect is also being enhanced. Of course, you are aware of the establishment of the National Traffic Radio 107.1 FM, an FRSC-owned station brought to life to boost existing platforms for the education, enlightenment, sensitisation and provision of real time traffic update to the mass population of road users,” he said.
Kazeem equally said that at current, the Commission is present process a large enlargement of the Command base to satisfy expectations.
He stated the enlargement would usher in additional freeway patrol groups, extra roadside clinics for immediate rescue companies, and ample deployment of tow vans for quick removing of obstructions.
“Our personnel have also been subjected to continuous capacity building to enhance professionalism, competence, and ease of doing business in the workplace,” he said.
He stated the Commission had strengthened 122 as its toll-free quantity to accommodate the quantity of calls that are available in every day, even because it had additionally beefed up response time for fast intervention.
“Road traffic fatalities and injuries have emerged as a challenge in the country, and Nigeria has been addressing the problem over time. The absence of an effective road safety policy and strategy for the country and problems among relevant agencies compounded the road crash pandemic in Nigeria over the years,” Kazeem stated.
Checks by the Media Talk Africa revealed that the foremost causes of road accidents may both be road situation, automobile situation or human issue.
Much as different components additionally contribute to accidents on our roads, specialists are of the opinion that the situation of roads is a serious contributory issue, not less than in Nigeria.
From east to west, north to south, the story is similar; the roads are typically dangerous. The roads throughout the nation are so dangerous to some extent that typically, potholes as deep as three toes dot our main highways. Rather a lot of accidents occur because of this of automobiles unexpectedly operating into these ditches, and when such accidents happen, it’s all the time very deadly with a excessive casualty determine.
Checks equally revealed that almost all autos in Nigeria are hardly ever serviced and even when they’re companies, it’s not completed by authorised producer’s service brokers, or by individuals who have entry to the producer’s service manuals.
Rather a lot of improvisations, subsequently, go into automobile upkeep. The serviceable components are additionally not reliably equipped by the authorised producer’s brokers. These pretend components, it’s believed, have a tendency to present manner within the least anticipated of conditions, resulting in accidents.
The human factor, in accordance with investigation, contains the federal government and its businesses just like the FRSC, Vehicle Inspection Service (VIS), and the Ministry of Transport, drivers and company our bodies. They have all did not stay as much as their respective biddings so far as decreasing road accidents is worried.
It has been identified that the convenience with which driver’s licence is procured in Nigeria requires critical considerations, and desires pressing scrutiny. People who don’t know something about driving simply get the licence on the licensing workplace so long as they’ve the money. It doesn’t matter whether or not the particular person is aware of the right way to drive or not as long as the particular person can afford the kickback.
This has elevated the quantity of accidents on the roads as a result of the resultant impact is that unskilled drivers are seen plying main roads.
Games transport corporations play
Media Talk Africa investigation confirmed that some of the transport corporations in Nigeria are within the behavior of paying their drivers based mostly on what number of journeys they had been in a position to go, say from Onitsha or Benin to Lagos, day by day. This observe is named ‘Pay as You go’ amongst drivers. This system is unhealthy, and it contributes to excessive carnage on the freeway as a result of most of them will attempt to go on as many journeys as potential to make more cash, forgetting that they’re human beings who’ve a restrict to the extent their system can function with out resting.
Investigation additionally revealed that the use of second hand automobile tyros, popularly referred to as ‘Tokunbo tyros,’ contribute an awesome deal to road accidents.
Speaking on the life-span of tyres, Chief Eze Chukwuma, who’s a seller on automobile tyres in Maza-Maza space of Lagos advised our correspondent that the common lifespan of a brand new tyre is 4 years, however regretted that almost all tokunbo tyres are manner as much as 10 years.
He stated that even the brand new tyres that burst typically are as a result of they’ve stayed for greater than 4 years after manufacturing with out getting used.
But, Pius Akwashiki, a driver with one of the foremost transport corporations in Nigeria won’t extricate the FRSC from the sundry road accidents, whilst he blamed the federal government for dangerous roads throughout the nation.
He stated accidents will proceed to be on the rise so long as there aren’t any statistics of drivers who’ve been concerned in road accidents greater than two instances.
He stated what occurs is that when most reckless drivers get entangled in road accidents with their automobile, what the transport firm usually does is simply to sack them. They will then search appointment with one other transport firm that’s unaware of their previous driving information.
They get entangled in one other accident and they’re fired and so they transfer to a different firm. The journey continues and so they hold losing folks’s lives on the freeway.
Meanwhile, the FRSC equally stated it was collaborating with the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) to make sure ample compensation for road crash victims and prosecution of drivers and their employers whose actions on the road result in road customers’ harm.
A press release on Tuesday, April 4, by the FRSC spokesman, Kazeem described the partnership as a concerted effort to make sure that victims of road crashes had been duly compensated via established authorized processes.
He stated the organisations finalised the settlement to collaborate throughout a courtesy go to of the Corps Marshal, Dauda Biu, to the president of the NBA, Yakubu Maikyau.
Prosecution of drivers concerned in accidents
The FRSC stated it had began preparations to prosecute drivers concerned in accidents, which resulted within the loss of lives.
In line with the plan, the FRSC will prosecute drivers concerned within the Liba and Bunza deadly crashes in Kebbi State earlier within the yr.
Biu disclosed that the prosecution would defend passengers’ rights and deter different site visitors violators.
Solutions
Speaking on the answer to incessant road carnage, Mr. Akwashiki suggested that each one authorities businesses from the FRSC, VIS to the Ministry of Transport must brace as much as their tasks.
He condemned a scenario the place individuals who’re inexperienced are given driver’s licence just because they might pay for it.
In a bid to implement all of the road security legal guidelines, he identified that the FRSC must also get fashionable gear that would help them in detecting drivers who’re drunk and nonetheless driving.
“Government should also do its bidding by ensuring that our major highways are devoid of potholes. The VIS should stop taking kickbacks and make sure that vehicles that are not road worthy are marked ‘off road,’” he submitted
Akwashiki additionally urged that if the FRSC may have a knowledge financial institution of all of the drivers which were concerned in road accidents for 2 or 3 times and publish such names within the nationwide newspapers in order that different transport house owners won’t rent them, it could be a serious step in the direction of decreasing road carnage.
Also attempting to proffer options, a safety analyst, Emeka Okoro, stated though Nigeria’s road site visitors fatality charge had diminished dramatically in recent times, it was nonetheless comparatively excessive when in comparison with the reported World Health Organisation estimates.
He famous that driving on Nigeria’s roads community might be dangerous and arduous as giant components have damaged down and others ridden with potholes as a result of neglect.
“Indeed, apart from many of the highways littered with craters, driving at night is comparable to walking through a dark alley because of the lack of street lights.
“The absence of proper road safety and poor management of roads remain the basis of road accidents which regularly occur at some flash points, such as sharp bends, potholes, and at bad sections of the highways.
“At such points, over-speeding drivers usually find it difficult to control their vehicles, resulting in fatal traffic accidents, especially at night. This, for me, is the fundamental reason for the high rate of deaths reported by the FRSC,” he stated.
Okoro stated that in response to the United Nations’ decade of motion for road security, the FRSC launched a “safe road in Nigeria” to cut back road crash deaths and accidents by 50 p.c by 2030.
He stated the marketing campaign was based mostly extra on altering driving behaviour than advocating for good road infrastructure.
He added that the FRSC has stepped up the marketing campaign in Nigeria to make sure that these targets are met by strengthening laws and enforcement in drunk driving, dashing, seat belt use, schooling/coaching and enforcement.
He stated that since road security is primarily the duty of governments, road accidents might be diminished by offering fundamental situations and companies.
He added that stakeholders should search collaboration amongst the private and non-private sectors, academia, skilled organisations, nongovernmental organisations and the media to maneuver in the direction of a rustic free from road site visitors fatalities and critical accidents.
