423 die, 2,339 wounded in road accidents in 1 month

The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, says 423 persons died and 2,339 others were wounded in 768 road traffic accidents across the country in July.

The agency disclosed this in the July edition of its monthly Road Traffic Crash (RTC) Report made available to the News Agency of Nigeria in Abuja on Friday.

According to the report signed by the FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi, the July death figure represents an increase of 122 or 41 per cent over that of June.

In June, the FRSC recorded 738 accidents nationwide leaving 301 persons dead and 2,157 others wounded.

The latest report said the accident cases and persons injured in July were also higher than those of the previous month by 30 and 182 or 4 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) maintained its lead in road traffic accidents among the 36 states with 93 cases resulting in 17 deaths and injury of 167 persons in July.

Kaduna State followed with 54 cases, which left 43 persons dead and 198 others injured, while Niger came third with 48 cases, leading to 24 deaths and 148 injured persons, according to the report.

On the number of fatalities, Kaduna State recorded the highest with 43 deaths, followed by Ogun (33), Jigawa (27), Osun (26), Niger (24), Kogi (22), Ebonyi (20), among others.

The report said that speed violation accounted for 505 cases or 56.4 per cent of the total road accidents in the month under review, thus leading other causative factors.

It was followed by dangerous driving, which resulted in 85 per cent or 9.5 per cent of the cases; tyre burst with 57 cases representing 6.4 per cent, and wrong overtaking leading to 52 per cent or 5.8 per cent of the cases.

According to the report, a total of 1,257 vehicles were involved in the July accidents, out of which 738 or 58.7 per cent were commercial, 499 or 39.7 per cent private and 20 government vehicles.

The report was accompanied with a cover letter addressed to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation whose office supervises the FRSC.

In the letter, the Corps Marshal solicited more assistance in the acquisition of additional speed detection devices, especially radar guns, to check the menace of speeding by motorists.