2013 Road Accident Report: FCT tops in total of 3,247 road traffic crashes

The Federal Road Safety Corps has revealed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest number of road accidents in the country within the third quarter of 2013, from July to September with 176 crashes.

According to official report released by the Federal Road Safety Corps, a total of 3,247 road traffic accidents were recorded nationwide in the third quarter, with 1,533 deaths and 8,710 injuries.

Within the period under review, the report from the Corps stated that the months of July had the highest rate of road accidents with 1,126 crashes and 544 persons killed.
The report signed by the Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka, indicates that most of the crashes were caused by speed limit violation, which accounts for more than 40%. Other causes include loss of control, dangerous driving, tyre burst and wrongful overtaking.

The report also explains that cars recorded the highest rate of vehicles involved in road accidents, accounting for 42.40%. This was followed by buses with 21.25% and motorcycles which account for 17.57%. Others include trucks which account for 17.44% and tricycles 1.30%. Bicycles recorded the lowest number with 0.03%.
According to the FRSC, four States with the highest number of road accidents in the third quarter are Kaduna, Kogi, Nassarawa and Oyo States.

Kaduna State recorded 148 road accidents within the period under review, while Kogi had 123. Nassarawa and Oyo States recorded 101 and 95 respectively. In all, 21,881,963 passengers travelled in the third quarter of the year, in 1,970,326 vehicles to various destinations nationwide.

Comparative analysis of the rate of accidents in the third quarter of 2012 and that of the same period in 2013 shows that there has been an increase of about 88% in the number of road traffic crashes from 11,730 in 2012 to 3,247 in 2013. The number of persons killed also rose to 1,533 in the third quarter in 2013 from 1,291 in 2012. The number of persons injured also increased in the third quarter of 2013 to 8,710 from 5,492 within the same period of 2012.

The FRSC, in the Report, also analyzed the combined accident data for the three quarters of 2013 from January to September, in which a total of 6,955 crashes were recorded with 3,955 number of persons were killed and 20,671 injured. Also within the nine months, 45,178 persons were involved in the crashes, from a total of 72,481,903 passengers who travelled nationwide.

The report further explained how the FRSC has been carrying out its other statutory responsibilities, which include registration of fleet operators, driving schools and training of drivers.

In the third quarter of 2013, the Corps registered 741 fleet operators and 862 driving schools while 2,176 drivers were trained.

On public enlightenment, the FRSC organized 2,527 rallies within the period under review. This is in addition to hundreds of television programmes which the Corps used to enlighten the public on road safety issues.