NBS: FCT Tops List as 1,279 Killed, Another 8,270 Injured in Road Crashes

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

No fewer than 1,279 persons were killed and another 8,270 injured in 2,503 road crashes, which occurred in the second quarter (Q2) of 2017.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT), in spite of its obvious better road network, recorded the highest number of road crashes in Q2 2017, closely followed by Kaduna and Niger States while Borno and Bayelsa States recorded the least.

According to the road transport data released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes and accounted for 44.44 per cent of the total road crashes reported.

Loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 12.92 per cent and 8.06 per cent of the total road crashes recorded.
A total of 8,270 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded. 7,805 of the 8,270 Nigerians who got injured, representing 94 per cent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 465 Nigerians or six per cent of the figure are children.

The demographics also showed that 6,217 male Nigerians, representing 75 per cent got injured in road crashes in Q2 while 2,053 female Nigerians representing 25 per cent were injured.

Similarly, a total of 1,279 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in Q2. 1,207 of the 1,279 Nigerians who died, representing 94 per cent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 72 Nigerians, representing six per cent of the figure are children.
Also, 1,022 male Nigerians, representing 80 per cent were killed in road crashes in Q2 while 257 female Nigerians, representing 20 per cent got killed.

Estimated vehicle population in Nigeria as at Q2 2017 was put at 11,506,863 with the total population of the country at 193,392,517 in 2016. Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is put 0.06.

According to the NBS, data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in Q2 2017 reflected that 58.59 per cent of vehicles are commercial (2,363), 40.22 per cent (1,622) are private, 1.14 per cent (46) are government and the remaining are diplomatic (2).

A total of 218,060 national drivers licences were produced in Q2 2017, with Lagos and FCT producing the highest number of drivers’ licences while Zamfara and Kebbi States produced the least numbers.

Similarly, a total of 110,881 vehicle number plates were produced in Q2 2017. FCT and Oyo state produced the
highest number of vehicle numbers plates while Ogun and Rivers States produced the least numbers of vehicle numbers plates in Q2 2017.