The 2024 Agenda

Road Safety Article

Congratulations for crossing over to 2024. As I look back to 2023, I cannot but express profound gratitude to the Almighty God for keeping us and to you, for keeping faith with the Federal Road Safety Corps.

Despite the challenges of 2023, I am hopeful that this year will end better than last year. 2023 was indeed challenging, but equally exciting. It demonstrated our strength and revealed our weaknesses too. Despite these, 2023 was in the words of my boss, Dauda Biu, a defining year for the Federal Road Safety Corps even in the face of what I could describe as hiccups that challenged the ruggedness of the Corps in delivering on its statutory mandate.

I am happy that a review of 2023 has been conducted and the corporate road map for 2024 laid, I would like to do a run down on some of the areas that will form the focus of this column although, not in any order of priority. I would like also in the words of my boss to state that the Corps in the areas of road traffic crashes and fatality reduction performed appreciably well even though we could have done better.

Let me again refresh your minds with the five critical road traffic crashes that claimed 58 lives and accounted for seventeen percent of the total number of recorded crashes between December 15 to January 15,2024 which stands at a total of 335 fatalities as against 350 in 2022.

Although the data of fatalities compared between 2022 and 2023 shows a 4 percent reduction, I believe that we could have done better. The record of crashes between the two years again shows that 10,617 crashes were recorded in 2023 as against 13,656 in 2022 which represents a 22 percent reduction. In the case of deaths, the report again shows that 5081 deaths were recorded in 2023 as against 6456 in 2022 representing 21 percent reduction.

Please allow for emphasis to run. The five critical crashes were primarily caused by overloading of trailers with passengers, goods and animals, speed violations, and night trips which is my focus for this week. The first crash occurred on 23 December, 2023, at 1208HRS in Kwanar Malamawa, Jigawa State. It involved a collision between a Toyota Camry and Volkswagen Golf3 resulting in the death of 10 people.

On 25 December, 2023 at 0635HRS in Inisa, Osun State, a lone crash that involved a Mitsubishi Canter resulting in the death of nine people occurred. This was followed on 01 January, 2024 at 0135HRS in Kakia, Katsina State, by another lone crash involving a Peugeot J5 Bus which led to the death of nine people.

In the same vein, on 02 January, 2024 at 0450HRS in Aiyere, Kwara State, another DAF Trailer collided with a Hiace Bus leading to the death of eleven people, while on 03 January, 2024 at 1950HRS in Sabon Wuse, Niger State, a crash involving a DAF Trailer and a Hiace Bus led to the death of nineteen people.

These five crashes alone killed a total of 58 victims and all deaths were recorded as a result of night trips. This alone represents 17 percent of the total deaths recorded within the 2023 outing period. Meanwhile, the total fatalities recorded from 15 December 2023 to 15 January 2024 stood at a total of 335 deaths nationwide as against 350 recorded in the same period in 2022 which represents 4 percent reduction.