By Jubril Bada
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Road accident happens quite often as a result of laxity of the road users.

Most common bad behaviours of drivers include over speeding, drunk driving, red light jumping , non-adherence to lane, the right overtaking in a wrong manner and avoiding safety gears like seat belts and helmets.

Statistics from Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) early this year revealed that 456 people died and 3404 others were injured in 826 accidents recorded nationwide in January.

On state by state basis, the statistics further revealed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), with the best road network in the country, however, maintained lead in the highest number of accidents with 92 cases.

NAN reported that Kaduna and Nasarawa states followed with 81 and 45 cases respectively  while Bayelsa came last with no accident case in that month.

On the basis of route, the Abuja-Lokoja highway, witnessed the highest number of accidents with 47 cases, Kaduna-Abuja road, 44 cases; and the Ilesha-Ipetu Ijesa Road in Osun least with five cases.

Speed violation is the highest contributor to road traffic accidents in the country in that January report.

Out of 948 identified causes of accidents that month, speed violation accounted for 426 cases, representing 44.9 percent, followed by tyre burst with 73 cases or 7.7 percent.

Others were: dangerous driving, 71 cases representing 7.5 percent; wrongful overtaking, 64 cases (6.8 percent), and brake failure, 39 cases( 4.1 percent) among others.

Bad road, which is generally blamed to be the major cause of many accidents on the nation’s highways, is ninth on the chart with 15 cases( 1.6 percent)

A total of 1,285 vehicles were involved in the January accident cases out of which 757 were commercial( 58.9 percent)

The other vehicle categories involved were: private, 510 cases (39.7 percent) government vehicles, 17 cases( 1.3 percent) and diplomatic vehicles, one case ( 0.1 per cent)

Also, the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBC) in its second quarter, 2018 Road Transport Data reflected that 2,608 road crashes occurred within the quarter.

According to the report, speed violation was noted as the major cause of road crashes in the second quarter, representing ( 50.65 percent )of the total road crashes reported. Tyre burst and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 8.59 percent and 8.40 percent respectively.

It reported that a total of 8,437 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded, saying that 7,946 who got injured,( 94 percent) were adults, while the remaining 491, (6 percent) were children.

The statistics explained further that 6,415 male ( 76 percent) got injured in road crashes in second quarter while 2,022 female( 24 percent got injured.

Similarly, a total of 1,331 were killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in that quarter. 1,257 (94 percent) are adults, while the remaining 74, which is 6 percent of children.

It further explained that 1,047 males (79 percent) got killed in road crashes in the second quarter, while 284 females (21 percent) got killed.

Data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in the second quarter reflected that 60.29 percent of vehicles were commercial (2,447), 38.63 percent were private (1,568), 1.08 percent were government (44).

Speaking with The Hope, the Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Ondo State, Mr. Rotimi Adeleye, said that the corps has discovered that the rate of crashes of commercial vehicles triples crashes of private vehicles, noting that the discovery has informed the men of the corps to ensure the commercial vehicles have speed limit device.

According to him, most of the crashes in Ondo State are transit drivers from Ondo to the neighbouring states due to their excessive speeds.

He called for attitudinal change among people on the use of road and obedience to rules and regulations , adding that the corps also holds joint campaign with the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) against the use of hard drugs.

The commander explained that the FRSC in the state usually visits motor parks to test the level of alcohol taken by drivers , saying that any driver with higher than the approved level of alcohol will be prevented from embarking on any trip.