Recent data has revealed that Nigeria is one of the countries with very high road fatalities in the world due to the dead traps called highways in the country.
The rise in the number of crashes on our roads is both distressing and frightening.
Investigations by LEADERSHIP Sunday revealed that the number of accidents occurring each month and the fatalities recorded are more frequent in states like Benue, Kogi, Borno, Gombe, Bauchi and Enugu.
While over speeding, dangerous driving and wrong overtaking are some of the causes, insufficient safety features in vehicles and driving under the influence of alcohol have also contributed to the deadly
Besides, some drivers operate in foggy condition with one functional headlamp, even as the tyres of several vehicles plying the roads are worn out just as their brakes are suspect.
Compounding the situation is the state of the roads which has made them easier for robbers and kidnappers to ambush innocent passengers and carry out their robbery, kidnapping and other criminal activities.
Despite the ember month enlightenment campaigns held by the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other collaborating agencies, Nigeria has continued to experience road crashes that leave several people dead and others injured.
According to recent data, no fewer than 3,700 persons have lost their lives in vehicle accidents in the country between January and October, 2022 according to the FRSC.
This revelation came from the acting corps marshal of the FRSC, Dauda Biu.
Biu said, “The negative impact of RTCs in the country, particularly the attendant loss of lives and damage to properties that come with it.
“These are fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters and of course breadwinners whose lives have been cut short by the actions and in-actions of road users who have refused to comply with established traffic regulations.”
This tragedy described by the FRSC boss was witnessed in recent times, the latest being the accident involving the convoy of Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of Adamawa State yesterday.
A truck rammed into two vehicles in the convoy of Fintiri but the governor was unhurt.
Witnesses said the incident happened after the governor and some commissioners entered a bus at the end of a wedding at Agga Mosque in Dougirei, Yola.
The truck which rolled down the road crushed two vehicles in his convoy, leaving police Inspector Madu and Sergeant Isa injured.
A witness said the truck rolled towards the convoy on high speed, adding that security operatives controlling traffic flow at the venue ran for their lives.
He said the truck hit the official vehicle of the permanent secretary, political and security affairs at the Government House and a car and the two injured policemen.
The police escort was said to have manhandled the driver and a man who pleaded with them to take it easy with him before the driver was thrown in to a police pick up and driven to the Jimeta Police Division.
The governor rebuked the driver after which he was hurriedly transferred to a Toyota jeep.
A source said the injured Inspector was still lying unconscious at the intensive care unit of the hospital while the Sergeant had regained consciousness.
Spokesman of the Adamawa Police Command, DSP Sulaiman Nguroje, promised to get details of the incident and get back to journalists.
In the same vein, no fewer than 52 lives were lost to fatal road crashes in Borno State within this month.
The most recent of them was the fatal crash last Tuesday at the Maiduguri- Damaturu highway where over 37 persons were confirmed death.
Two passenger buses, one transiting from Abuja to Maiduguri and the other from Maiduguri to Geidam town of Yobe State had a head-on collision.
In that fatal accident many of the deceased burnt beyond recognition while bodies of others were shredded to pieces.
The Borno Sector Commander of FRSC, Utten Boyi, who confirmed the ghastly accident said the buses on high speed caught fire after the collision, adding that the command counted 37 corpses and that most of them burnt beyond recognition.
“The accident happened around Jakana village about 35 kilometres from Maiduguri,” Boyi said.
He said that his men in collaboration with the Police, NEMA and fire service mobilised their personnel to evacuate the victims of the accident.
According to him, the police had obtained a court order to carry out mass burial for the dead.
Boyi said prior to the crash, there was another crash on the 21st of the same month along the same Maiduguri- Damaturu highway where out 10 people that were involved in the accident, five died instantly while, the other five sustained various degrees of injuries.
He blamed most of the road crashes to over speeding by most of the drivers who are eager to make money in the yuletide.
He cautioned drivers to avoid over speeding and checking of worn out tires before embarking on journeys.
The third incident, although not in Borno, involved Borno Police contingent travelling to Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, for the 2022 Police Games where two female constables died, and 17 others were injured.
Confirming the incident, the Borno State Police Command, through its spokesman, Sani Shatambaya, said 17 other others sustained various degrees of injuries during the fatal crash which occurred at Lawan Kibo around Plateau State.
Also, three persons, including two males and a female lost their lives to an auto-crash in Anambra State recently.
The victims were among the pedestrians who were hit at Onitsha Bridge Head along the Onisha-Asaba Expressway when a driver of a truck lost control of the vehicle.
An eyewitness who gave an account of the accident which happened at about 10am on October 28 stated that it involved two vehicles, a blue commercial truck with registration number LSD697YD and a white colour Mistibushi L300 commercial bus with registration number LEH596XA.
He stated that the driver of the truck was trying to avoid a towing van that was dragging a vehicle on the Niger Bridge when it rammed on the L300 commercial bus carrying about ten passengers.
He said while three persons lost their lives the remaining seven passengers sustained various degrees of injuries, adding that immediately the driver of the truck noticed the accident he jumped down from his vehicle and fled.
The Anambra State commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Adeoye Irelewuyi, who confirmed the incident, attributed the cause to “brake failure”.
But the deadliest roads may be in Benue State where more accidents are being reported than anywhere else in the country.
The FRSC said 74 road crashes occurred in the state from September till date.
The Corps Public Relations Officer, Meshach Oladele, who disclosed this to LEADERSHIP Sunday in a telephone conversation disclosed that in September, 122 persons were involved in road traffic crashes (RTC) and six people died.
He noted that in October, 173 persons were involved in road crashes and 12 people lost their lives.
In November, he said there were 169 road crashes and 11 people died in the process, bringing the total number of people involved in RTC to 464 and the total number of people that died in the crashes to 29.
Oladele further disclosed that the cause of the road crashes is as a result of over speeding, Tyre burst (TBT) Route Violation (RTV).
Four persons died in an accident along Asaba-Onitsha expressway at Okpanam junction, in the Asaba area of Delta state.
The accident claimed the lives of the victims, compelling some angry youths to set the vehicle ablaze, just as the situation reportedly slowed down vehicular movements and caused traffic along the expressway.
Two occupants were in a Toyota Camry when the vehicle suddenly veered off the road and rammed into the four victims waiting to board a bus by the roadside.
“The victims were along the expressway waiting for a bus when a Toyota Camry car veered off the road and crush over six persons
Three men and a lady died on the spot while others sustained serious injuries. Immediately the occupants ran away but angry youths set the car ablaze. We suspected that they were yahoo boys,” the eyewitness said.
However, another eyewitness said the driver of the Toyota Camry car was driving at top speed when the vehicle experienced a brake failure.
“The vehicle was over speeding but the driver could not control the vehicle when it experienced brake failure and veered off to the other side where people were and killed four persons. It was a terrible accident,” the eyewitness said.
Udeme Esiet, Sector commander of the FRSC, Delta State Command, and state Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), DSP Bright Edafe, confirmed the accident.
Similarly, the Unit commander of the FRSC, ACC Uchechi Ogbonna, confirmed that nine persons were killed with six others sustaining serious injuries in a fatal auto crash that occured immediately after River Benue bridge in Hayin-Gada in Adamawa State.
The accident which occured on the November 9, 2022, according to an eye witness, Kwaji Lenos, involved a tipper loaded with sand coming from Hayin Gada which lost control due to brake failure.
It drove into five shops where traders were selling charcoal beside a vulcanizer by the roadside.
The Unit Commander, RS3.13 Girei Unit, said the injured were evacuated to specialist hospital Yola for treatment.
“The number of casualties is not more than nine. No fewer than nine people died. FRSC officials who are involved in the rescue operation are yet to come back from the scene of the accident,” the unit commander added.
Within the same period, quite a number of road accidents were recorded across the 16 local government areas of Ekiti State, but fortunately no fatality was recorded.
No fewer than nine persons lost their lives in the road accidents while several others were injured.
Over a week ago, in Ado Ekiti, two policemen also lost their lives in an accident involving a truck and a motorcycle.
The accident occurred around Olawuwo at Adebayo area of Ado Ekiti.
The Police Public Relations Officer, Ekiti Command, DSP Sunday Abutu, said, “I can confirm to you that this pathetic event happened this morning when the two policemen, who were coming from Iworoko Ekiti to their duty post in Ado Ekiti, were crushed by a tipper.
“The policemen were going on their own lane; it was the tipper driver that was negotiating a diversion placed on the road by a construction company rehabilitating the Ado-Ifaki by turning to the left side and overran them.
“We learnt the two of them died on the spot. The driver of the tipper had been arrested while the corpses were taken to the morgue at the Ekiti State University Teaching Hospital”.
In another road accident involving a 18-passenger bus and a Toyota car, seven persons were confirmed dead.
The auto crash occurred along Iluomoba-Aisegba highway in Gboyin local government area of the state.
The two vehicles, it was gathered, had a head-on collision in the night leading to the death of the passengers, while about eight others were seriously injured.
An eyewitness account had it that one of the vehicles, while trying to avoid a pothole on a portion of the road lost control, and collided with the oncoming vehicle heading to Ado Ekiti, the state capital.
The Sector Commander, FRSC in Ekiti State, Olusola Joseph, who attributed the accident to overs peeding, confirmed that 17 passengers occupied the two vehicles.
Joseph clarified that seven passengers lost their lives, while others suffered varying degrees of injuries.
The Kogi State Command of the FRSC has so far recorded two fatal accidents that claimed the lives of road users.
In a tragic incident that happened along Ejule-Ochadamu road, no fewer than 11 people were burnt to death and seven injured in a multiple crash that occurred on November 10.
The FRSC said investigation further revealed that the main causes of the crash and subsequent fire outbreak that claimed the innocent lives of the victims were road obstruction and brake failure.
It was gathered that the explosion occurred around a military check point where the oncoming truck that lost control ran into the fuel laden tanker.
Away from the casualty figure that was pegged at eleven, an eyewitness account said over 40 people were burnt beyond recognition, just as some carcasses were picked from under the bridge.
Meanwhile, five persons also died instantly while four were critically injured last Monday when a truck crushed a car in Okene, Kogi State.
The accident was as a result of a truck that lost control and rammed into a car, killing five people and injuring four others on the spot.
FRSC confirmed that the accident occurred at Oro junction in the town at about 7:30pm on Monday.
Eye witnesses told LEADERSHIP that more people would have been killed or suffered severe injuries but for the car which served as brake, preventing the truck from getting to the people sitting down by the road leading to Ageva.
The ever-busy area would have been soaked with the blood of the residents and citizens that were returning to their homes after the day’s work.
In all, a total 16 people have been confirmed by the authorities to have lost their lives in separate road crashes in Kogi State in the month of November 2022.
Although the casualty figures in no fewer than 22 road crashes in the third quarter of 2022 in Akwa Ibom State currently stands at 61, LEADERSHIP Sunday gathered that only four cases of death were established in the last one month.
The sector commander in charge of the state command of the FRSC, Mathew Olonisaye, speaking in an interview with our correspondent in his Idoro Road office, Uyo, disclosed that the accident occurred in Essien Udim local government area, claiming the lives of four family members on a motor bike.
He explained that the accident happened when “a man, apparently drunk and over speeding, tried to overtake a motorcycle conveying a family of four, but suddenly hit them from behind and crushed the four occupants of the motorcycle, including husband, wife and their two children before he rammed into a nearby building.”
Olonisaye, who commiserated with the family of the victims, thanked God that “there were no other people in the building that would have increased the number of casualties.”
The number of road crashes between January and September, 2022, according to him, currently stands at 67, with a low number of deaths reported.
He added that the command would soon embark on aggressive enlightenment programmes in order to effectively regulate traffic during the Yuletide rush hours.
In the month of October 2022 there were several road accidents that claimed many lives and left many people injured in Gombe State.
According to the state road safety office, the number of road traffic crashes recorded in the state in October was 32, with 13 deaths and 88 persons sustaining injuries.
But from the beginning of the year 2022 to date, the number of people who were killed in road accidents is over 100.
Different road accidents over the last 26 six days in Bauchi State have killed at least 12 persons.
Similarly, within the same period, over 20 persons sustained injuries from the accidents which mostly occurred on Bauchi-Jos and Bauchi-Kano expressways.
