FCT witnesses highest number road accidents

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest number of road accidents nationwide in November, with 112 out of 781 crashes.

According to statistics released by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Kaduna State came second in both months with 61 and 58 crashes, respectively.

Borno was least in November, with one accident, displacing Ekiti which held the position also with an accident in October.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the FCT has been leading road crashes in spite of its better road network, giving credence to FRSC’s position that accidents are caused mostly by reckless driving.

According to the FRSC statistics, 391 lives were lost in October and 2,557 injured out of a total of 5,476 persons involved in road crashes nationwide.

The fatality figure for November stood at 379, representing 3 per cent decrease compared to that of October.

According to the report, 1,271 vehicles and 5,148 persons were involved in road traffic crashes in November, out of which 2,338 sustained varying degrees of injuries.

The reports said that in October, a total of 678 persons were involved in road crashes in FCT, out of which 23 died and 261 injured.

The statistics also showed that the number of road crash victims in the territory dropped to 615 in November, with 21 fatalities and 255 injured persons.

On the basis of routes, the corps credited Lagos-Ibadan Road with the highest number of crashes in November, with 34 cases, 16 deaths and 116 injured persons.

The Abuja-Lokoja Road followed with a total of 34 road crashes which claimed six lives and left 112 persons injured.

In October. the Abuja-Lokoja Road recorded a total of 45 crashes leaving 15 persons dead and 170 injured, thus, ranking the most dangerous route for the month.

The Lagos-Ibadan Road had placed second in October, with 31 cases, 26 fatalities and 126 injured persons.

The reports blamed the crashes largely on speeding, which, it said, accounted for 50.4 per cent of the accidents in November and 52 per cent for October.

“The next most likely cause of crashes is dangerous driving, which accounted for 9.2 per cent of the cases."

“Tyre-related incidents resulted in between 7.9 and 6.7 per cent of the cases,’’ the corps said in the November report.

The FRSC said that sustained enforcement of official speed limits and improvement in post-crash care activities on crash-prone corridors were critical to a safe traffic environment.