‘25% Of Fatal, Serious Accidents Caused By Drivers With Poor Sight’

As Nigeria joined the global community to commemorate this year’s World Sight Day, the chairman, National Eye Health Committee, Prof. Afekhide Omoti, has said good vision is key to preventing road traffic crashes (RTC).

He said 20 percent of all the traffic accidents and up to one-quarter of fatal and serious accidents are due to drivers with a diminished vigilance level.

Omoti stated this yesterday during an awareness meeting with Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN) in commemoration of the World Sight Day, with the theme: “Love Your Eyes” in Abuja,

He said vision is key to achieving safety on roads hence the need for awareness to be created among key stakeholders of public transport, especially the drivers, whose primary responsibility is to convey their passengers safely to their destination.

On the government’s efforts at preventing avoidable vision loss, the physician said the country developed the National Eye Health Policy in 2019 which was adopted by states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

Omoti said the policy provides a framework for collective direction to scale up eye care delivery at all levels, providing an interface for all stakeholders to galvanise action for development in eye care and a sustainable approach to achieving equitable access to quality eye care and strengthening Nigeria’s health system towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC).

This, Omoti said the Federal Ministry of Health aims to achieve through the integration of Primary Eye Care (PEC) into the Primary Health Care (PHC) in the country’s health system, thus reaching out to the underserved in the remote areas of the country.

He said this would also help to improve accessibility of women and the elderly to eye care since they are the most affected.