Road accidents have killed 473 persons in 18 months in Niger State.
The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Sector Commander in Niger State Kumar Tsukwam revealed this on Friday, saying the accidents occurred from January 2022 to June 2023.
Tsukwam said efforts were being made to reduce crashes to the barest minimum in view of the high number of deaths recorded in the state.
He said the command recorded 766 accidents involving 5, 272 persons involved, with 2, 607 sustaining various degrees of injuries.
Tsukwam said 204 of the accidents were fatal, 483 serious while 79 were minor adding that the accidents were caused by human, vehicular and environmental factors.
He, however, said that the corps concentrated on the drivers during sensitization, because little mistakes by them could lead to accidents as they drive and control the vehicles.
“The attitude of a driver while driving matters a lot and compliance to traffic rules and regulations is also important. Therefore, it is the human that is responsible for many of the accidents,” he said.
Tsukwam said that the corps had embarked on daily sensitisation known as “Early Morning Cry” to motor-parks in the state.
He said that the aim of the sensitisation was to enlighten road users, especially commercial drivers, on the need to obey traffic rules and regulations.
“Every day, we go to the motor parks to talk to commercial drivers and also take a look at their vehicles to determine the road worthiness.
“When you obey traffic rules and regulations, you have saved your own life and the lives of other road users,” the sector commander said.
He cautioned road users, especially commercial drivers, against night journeys, because of the bad condition of many roads and security challenges across the country.
“We went to one of the motor parks in the state around 12 a.m., when we noticed that a particular driver wanted to travel to Lagos; we stopped him with the help of the union.
“What we are advocating for now is for drivers to shun night journeys, because of the dangers on our roads,” the FRSC boss said.
Tsukam urged residents of the state to always respect traffic rules and regulations, while using the roads in order to prevent RTCs.
“RTCs have claimed many lives, while others have been maimed for life,” he said.
According to the FRSC boss, under the global framework and plan of action, there are five pillars the corps considers during operations.
He said that these five pillars are the vehicle, road mobility, driver, road user and post-crash.
“Under this arrangement, it is supposed to take us a maximum of 15 minutes to get to the scene of any accident to save lives,” he said.
Tsukwam appealed to the state government to collaborate with the corps in establishing more help areas to enable them to reach the accident scene on time.
