In Nigeria, hardly a day goes by without news of a fatal, ghastly, or minor road traffic crash and data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) reveals that Nigeria recorded a total of 3,345 road traffic crashes in the first quarter of this year, an average of 37 road crashes per day.
While the number of crashes decreased by 1.82% from the 3,407 recorded in Q4 2021, the number of persons killed in road crashes in Q1 of this year increased by 11.02%.
Year-on-year, the number of crashes recorded in Q1 2022 increased by 1.33%.
By classification, 26% of the total 3,345 crashes that happened in Q1 this year were fatal cases, while 62.8% were classified as serious cases. 374 representing only 11.2% were categorised as minor cases.
The highest number of crashes recorded in Q1 occurred in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) — 319, followed by Ogun state with 268. Nasarawa and Lagos came third and fourth with 247 and 198 cases respectively.
At the bottom are Katsina states and Akwa Ibom states with 13 and 16 cases, respectively.
Further analysis of the road transport data shows that a total of 1,834 persons were killed in the country in Q1 as a result of road traffic crashes.
Of this figure, male adults accounted for 77.8%, while female adults were 15.2%. For children, the percentage of females that were killed was higher than males.
| Sex | Number of Persons Killed | Percentage |
| Male Adult | 1,427 | 77.8 |
| Female Adult | 279 | 15.2 |
| Female Child | 68 | 3.7 |
| Male Child | 60 | 3.3 |
| Total | 1,834 | 100 |
Altogether, more males (adults and children) lost their lives to road traffic crashes in Q1 2022, a total of 1,487 representing 81.1% of the number of persons killed. Females (adults and children) on the other hand accounted for 18.9% of the figure.
Compared to Q4 2021, road traffic crashes claimed the lives of more people this quarter. In Q4 last year, a total of 1,652 persons were killed, while in Q1 this year the figure stood at 1,834, which is an increase of 11.02%.
In fact, the number of persons who were killed in road traffic crashes in Q1 2022 is higher than what was recorded in each quarter of 2021.
In Q1 2021, the number of persons who were killed in road traffic crashes were 1,668. The numbers declined in Q2 and Q3 then picked up again in the next quarter, bringing the total number of persons killed that year to 6,205.