WED, 30 SEPT, 2020-theGBJournal- The numbers just published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), are grim and reflects the daily unruly driving culture in Nigeria, a country were majority of the citizens depend on driving and public transportation to get around.
‘’Nigeria is one of the worst countries in the world to be driving or using a public transportation system,’’ says some citizens theGBJournal shared the NBS the data with. They classify the nation’s highways as death traps because of the high incidence of kidnapping, potholes, dangerous driving and over speeding.
Lagos with 163 casualties according to the NBS data, is generally acknowledged as the worst city in terms of overall traffic problems-traffic jams, poor roads and road networks. 387 people were involved in accidents in the State during the period under review.
Ironically, majority of the states in the northern part of the country top Lagos in the rate of casualties and number of people involved in accidents. For instance, Kaduna State reported 619 casualties and 1,084 people involved in road accidents during the period. Nasarawa State also tops Lagos in terms of casualties and number of people involved in accidents with 266 casualties and 398 involved in accidents. Niger state recorded 279 casualties with a total of 376 people involved in accidents.
One of the States with the highest rate of traffic related incidences in the South West is Ogun, largely know for the poor state of its road networks. A total of 408 casualties were recorded during the period with a total of 845 involved in road accidents. Oyo State has a total of 718 people involved in accidents with 349 casualties.
Bayelsa and Rivers State are two of the least affected States with just 32 casualties and 50 people involved in River State and 13 casualties and 27 people involved in accidents in Bayelsa State during the period under review. Borno State also has a very low incidence of traffic problem, reporting a total of 17 casualties and 22 people involved.
According to the NBS, a total of 855 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in Q2 2020. Out of the total Nigerians that got killed, 788 are adults representing 92% of the figure while the remaining 67 Nigerians are children representing 8%. 694 male Nigerians, representing 81%, got killed in road crashes in Q2 2020 while 161 female Nigerians, representing 19% got killed.
Speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes in Q2 2020 and it accounted for 47% of the total road crashes reported, Wrongful overtaking followed closely as it accounted for 10% of the total road crashes recorded while Dangerous Overtaking recorded the least of the total road crashes reported.
In all 2,080 road crashes occurred in Q2 2020 with a total of 5,535n Nigerians injured in the road crashes recorded.
Out of the total Nigerians that got injured, 5,166 are adults representing 93% while the remaining 369 Nigerians are children representing 7%. 4,393 male Nigerians, representing 79%, got injured in road crashes in Q2 2020 while 1,142 female Nigerians, representing 21% got injured.
The data reports that 3,334 vehicles were involved in road traffic crashes in Q2 2020. Car is reported to be the major type of vehicle involved in road crashes and it accounted for 28% of the vehicles involved in road crashes reported followed by Motorcycle and Minibus as they both accounted for 24% and 15% respectively. Data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in Q2 2020 reflected that 64% of vehicles are commercial (2,124), 35% are private (1,166) and 1% are government with 44 vehicles involved.
As for national drivers’ licenses, a total of 54,672 were produced in Q2 2020 while a total of 155,552 vehicle number plates were produced in the same period.
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