THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has recorded a decrease in road traffic crashes (RTCs), related fatalities and injuries during the first half (H1) of 2023.
Corps Public Education Officer (CPEO) Bisi Kazeem disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday, Sept. 20, noting that there had been a 15.5 per cent decrease in fatalities compared to the same period in 2022.
“On the number of people killed, the corps also recorded a significant reduction within the operational period. According to the crash data report, in the first six months of 2023, the corps recorded a total of 2,850 fatalities as against 3,375 in the same period in 2022, representing a 15.5% reduction,” Kazeem noted.
There were 5,700 RTCs in the first half of 2023, a 14 per cent decrease compared to 6,627 cases in H1 2022.
FRSC also recorded a 14 per cent decline in the figure of people rescued with injuries, as 16,716 were rescued in 2023 and 19,440 in 2022.
“The corps marshal attributed this modest achievement to a number of strategies and innovations in enforcement activities, improved presence and visibility, public enlightenment and partner engagement.
“While charging drivers to desist from bad driving behaviours, corps marshal Dauda Ali Biu re-emphasised the commitment of the corps towards achieving its corporate mandate of sanitising the highways and entrenching safety on the nation’s over 200,000 kilometres road network,” Kazeem noted.
Globally, Africa is infamous for having the world’s highest road accident death rates.
According to a 2014 report by the Global Road Safety Facility (GRSF), a global multi-donor fund hosted by the World Bank, Nigeria tops the countries with the most fatalities from traffic crashes.
Before the decline in H1, RTC cases in Nigeria had been on the rise, with the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recording the highest figures nationwide.
There were 13,027 RTC cases in 2021, which rose to 13,656 in 2022.
Ijeoma Opara is a journalist with The ICIR. Reach her via [email protected] or @ije_le on Twitter.