Chris Otaigbe
Amid poor infrastructure and funding of Nigerian roads, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has cautioned motorists against insisting on their right of way as such moves have been a major contributor to accidents on major roads in the country. NAN reports.
The FRSC Zonal Commander in charge of Zone 9, Mr Owoimaha Udoma, gave the warning while speaking to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Enugu on Sunday.
Udoma, who is in-charge of Abia, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo States, spoke after monitoring some major road corridors within Enugu, Abia and Ebonyi states as part of his supervision on the ongoing “Operation Safe Journey’’ for the Eid-el-Kabir celebration nationwide.
“The motoring public and every other road user should ply the roads with restraint and accommodation of others. At times, a fellow motorist may be making a mistake and infringing on your right of way; the best approach to avoid accident and build up traffic is for you to be patient with the erring driver and give him a minute or two and you go your way peacefully. The little patience and accommodation we display on the roads usually help our journeys to be smooth and hitch-free,” he said.
The zonal commander urged motorists to apply defensive driving and start their journeys on time to avoid the temptation of driving on high speed to make up for lost time.
“The best journey is the one made and the people at the other end, which is your destination, can comfortably welcome you alive as well as hale and hearty,” he said.
On the outcome of his monitoring, Udoma said that FRSC got enough personnel as well as patrol and other special vehicles for evacuation and rescue deployed at strategic locations within the zone.
“So far, the transport companies and fleet operators that convey passengers has maintained carrying only 50% of their normal passengers in line with the COVID-19 Protocols, although, with their fares increased. Terminals (parks) owners have fully complied with provisions of hand washing facilities and alcohol-based hand sanitizers, while wearing of facemask is made mandatory for all passengers as well.
According to him, from general assessment, operations have been smooth and hitch-free within the zone, adding that stakeholders are also up and doing.
This is part of “Operation Safe Journey”, which was flagged-off on July 29, scheduled to terminate on August 8.
Road users are often too mindful of their lane to the exclusion of other users, in some cases, completely oblivious and unconcerned with the cheating antics of users who want to illegitimately bulldoze their way into the lane of other users.
The obsession to hold on to their lanes irrespective of the vehicular danger posed by the next driver who wants to illegally claim a space that is not his or hers often lead to accidents. In such cases, experts describe such users as ‘Road rights Claimers’ with an immature sense of traffic ethics and bad sense of restraint on the road.
This then begs the question of the mode of Drivers’ License approvals, while it will also be interesting to note the number of vehicles that ply Nigerian roads, as well as the number of road accidents, deaths and injuries incurred within the last two years.
In other words, as the second month in the second half of the year begins, a knowledge of the statistics concerning Nigerian roads, vehicular traffic, accidents and Driver’s License management between 2018 and 2019 especially is pertinent at this juncture.
The Full Year 2019 road transport data report reflected that 11,072 road crashes occurred in 2019, with speed violation reported as the major cause of road crashes, accounting for 48% of the total road crashes reported in 2019.
In addition, wrongful overtaking followed closely as it accounted for 9% of the total road crashes recorded while poor weather recorded the least of the total road crashes reported.
An estimated 35,981 Nigerians were injured in the road traffic crashes recorded. About 94% (33,831) of the figure include adults while the remaining 2,150 (6%), are children. 27,120 (75%) male and 8,861 (25%) female Nigerians incurred bodily injury in road crashes in 2019.
Similarly, 5,483 Nigerians lost their lives in the road traffic crashes recorded in 2019, amounting to an average of about 12 people daily in the year 2019.
5,059 of the 5,483 Nigerians who died, representing 92% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 424 Nigerians, representing 8% of the figure are children. 4,255 males (about 78%) and 1,228 females, representing 22% Nigerians, died in road crashes in 2019.
About 17,500 vehicles were involved in road traffic crashes in 2019. Regarded as the major type of vehicle involved in road crashes, cars accounted for 31% of the vehicles involved in road crashes reported, followed by motorcycles and minibuses, which account for 20% and 19% respectively.
According to the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 64.68% of vehicles, which include commercial (11,319), 34.13%; private (5,972), 1.17%; are, government (204) and the diplomat with five vehicles, were involved in road crashes in 2019.
In that same period, a total of 791,627 national drivers’ licenses were produced with Lagos and FCT having the highest number, while Zamfara and Kebbi States produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license. For all the new automobiles that plied Nigerian roads, in that year, a total of 757,341 vehicle number plates were produced.
Latest report from the NBS has estimated the total number of vehicles in the country at about 11.7 million with commercial vehicles holding about 58.08% of the number.
According to the report, out of the 11,653,871 million vehicles, commercial vehicles are 6,768,756, representing about 58.08%; private are 4,739,939 (40.67%); government vehicles followed with 139,264 (1.19%); while Diplomatic vehicles accounted for 5,912 (0.05%).
However, NBS stated that about 2,189 vehicles were involved in road crashes across the country, while 661 of them were fatal; 1,232 were serious and 296 were minor crashes.
About 16,603 people were involved in various road crashes out of which 7,848 were injured; 1220 were killed; with total casualty of 9,068.
The breakdown showed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest number of road crashes in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2018.
With a total number of 274 crashes and 1,513 persons involved, FCT became the highest followed by Kaduna with 198 crashes involving 1,487 persons, while Nasarawa ranked third with 131 crashes involving 877 persons.
The data showed in the category of vehicles involved in road crashes, which include commercial, private, government and diplomat; commercial vehicles recorded a total of 2,330 crashes; private 1,480; government, 52; while diplomats had two, totalling 3,864.
For the vehicle number plate production for the quarter in review, Lagos has the highest with 70,639, Ogun with 12,574, while Osun had 10,648.
Out of the production for Lagos, only 48,095 were registered, Ogun, 264, while Osun, 342. Conversely, Zamfara produced 44 number plates, Ebonyi 42, and FCT 33.
Meanwhile, government registered a total of 828 vehicles, while about 143,254 number plates have been produced, with a total of 223,107 national drivers’ licenses produced in Q1 2018.
Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses, while Ekiti and Kebbi States produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license.
In addition, Lagos recorded the highest number of National driver’s license production in the quarter with a total 57,205 representing 25.64 per cent, Ogun 13,187 and Oyo 11,923.
The total number of driver’s license produced across the country was 223,107.
The data reflected that 2,482 road crashes occurred in Q1 2018. Speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes in Quarter one, accounting for 50.81% of the total road crashes reported.
Tyre burst and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 8.26% and 8.42% of the total road crashes recorded.
According to the report, 8,466 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded. 7,773 of the 8,466 Nigerians that got injured, representing 92% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 693 Nigerians, representing 8% of the figure are children.
6,394 male and 2,072 female Nigerians, representing 76% and 24% respectively, got injured in road crashes in the first quarter.
Similarly, about 1,292 Nigerians were killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in the first three months of 2018. 1,186 of the 1,292 Nigerians that got killed, representing 92% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 106 Nigerians, representing 8% of the figure are children. About 78% (an estimated 1,008) male Nigerians were killed in road crashes in the first three months of that year, while 284 female Nigerians, representing 22% also died.
On the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in the first quarter of 2018, data showed that 60.3% of vehicles are commercial (2,330), while 1,480 (38.30%) are private, 52 belong to government (1.35%) and the diplomat with two vehicles.
In its 2020 Budget, the Federal Government will be spending about N169.88bn on the construction and rehabilitation of roads in the six geopolitical zones of the country.
The figure is far less than the N280.44bn budgeted for the same purpose in the 2019 Budget.
During the budget presentation, Buhari had said the Federal Government would not embark on new road projects, but complete ongoing ones.
However, the N169.88bn allocated for road construction and rehabilitation fell short of the amount needed to address road infrastructure deficits in the country.
This is a far cry from about three trillion naira (N3tn), which the Regulation of Engineering in Nigeria said the country required to address the massive road infrastructure deficits in the country, as at November 2016.
This would obviously continue to impact negatively on the structure, infrastructure vehicular and traffic management on the nation’s roads and highways, while, of course, user interface with the infrastructure will remain chaotic and anarchic, as many would continue to claim rights on roads that have neither proper nor effective road regulations.
Consequently, the nation will continue to nurse injuries from the injured as well dig more graves for the dead as the years roll by.
