Are Ember Months Bane Of Road Accidents In Nigeria?

Car crashes are unfortunately on the increase in spite of warning by the Federal Road Safety Commission. And with recent ranking of Nigeria as one of the countries in the world with the average speed limit of 55 km/hr allowed for road vehicles and Nigeria ranking among countries with the lowest speed range of 30-60 km/hr road speed, speed limit violations account for 59.79 % of the 4,283 road accidents in Q1 2022, data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) and the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have shown.

It is not unusual to push the blame on the ember months that is the four concluding months of the year, September, October, November And December. This is because it is at this period several vehicles ply the roads. While commercial drivers are rushing to make more money for the festivities and journeys that come with the year’s end, others are trying to wrap up businesses and travel to their home towns.

However, ember months cannot be blamed as most of these accidents are caused by reckless driving , poor condition of the roads, bad condition of the vehicle, and most times tiredness on the part of the driver others are caused by making use of the mobile phone to make or answer calls and driving under the influence of alcohol or illicit drugs.

An accident that would not be forgetten in a hurry is that of Zaria – Kano expressway in the month of July 2022, where 30 people lost their lives and many others sustained varying degrees of injuries.

The accident occurred near Hawan Mai Mashi in Makarfi Local Government Area of Kaduna State. Assistant Corp Commander in charge of Zaria Zone of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Abdurahman Yakasai, who confirmed the accident involving two Toyota 18-Seater buses and a Volkswagen Gulf, said that aside the 30 who lost their lives, 12 of the passengers sustained serious injuries in the crash.

The unit commander who attributed the auto crash to dangerous overtaking and over speeding, said the FRSC could not ascertain the registration numbers of the vehicles because the vehicles were burnt to ashes. According to the NBS/FRSC data, a total of 16,337 road crashes recorded in the year left 6,205 dead and 38,073.00 others injured, while 9,009 accidents were caused by speed limit violations.

In spite of this rating, a total of 4,283 road crashes were recorded across the country in Q1 2022. More than half – 2,561 (59.79%) – of such crashes were caused by speed limit violations. These were followed by wrongful overtaking – 290 (6.77%), sign light violation – 243 (5.67%), dangerous driving – 229 (5.35%) and tyre burst – 223 (5.21%) among others.