More than 44,000 Nigerians were involved in road accidents claiming about 3,372 of their lives across the 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as of the first half of 2022, data on road traffic crashes from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) shows.
The data further showed that these Nigerians got involved from 6,627 cases of road traffic crashes leading to 19,440 persons getting injured.
In 2019, the World Economic Forum (WEF) had said that sub-saharan Africa is the global capital for road traffic deaths.
“Indeed, there has been no progress in reducing the number of deaths from road traffic incidents in any low-income country…,” WEF noted.
According to the data, the top five states with the highest number of road accident cases are the FCT- 857, Ogun- 507, Nasarawa- 484, Kaduna- 378, and Lagos- 346. The states with the lowest number of cases are Borno- 38, Bayelsa- 38, Katsina- 39, Akwa Ibom- 44 and Imo- 46.
The FCT also recorded the highest number of people involved in road accidents. Of more than 44,000 persons, 4,273 were from the FCT, representing about ten percent. Ogun state had 3,501 persons involved, Kaduna- 3,404; Kogi- 2,691; and Nasarawa- 2,511.
Forty-one per cent of road accident deaths across Nigeria in the first half of the year was recorded in the Kaduna, Niger, Ogun, Kano, Kogi states and the FCT. This means 31 states recorded 59 per cent.
On a quarterly basis, the first quarter recorded more in the numbers of cases, people involved, people injured and people who died as a result of road accidents. For instance, the number of cases reduced to 3,282 in the second quarter from 3,345 in the first quarter of the year. The number of people who died also reduced to 1,538 in Q2 from 1,834 in Q1.
However, the number of road accidents seem to be on the increase on a year-to-year basis. The number of road crash incidents increased from 6,486 in the first half of 2021 to 6,627 in 2022. The number of people who died as a result of road accidents increased from 3,121 in 2021 to 3,372 in 2022.
In 2021, the FRSC, in its Strategic Goals for the year, said it would ‘minimize the Risk of Death in Road Traffic’. The agency aimed at reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatality by 20 per cent, but rather than reducing, road crashes in Nigeria increased.
The FRSC had identified overspeeding by drivers as the major cause of road accidents in Nigeria.