The Federal Road Safety Corps says 11,436 persons lost their lives as a result of road accidents across Nigeria in 2014 and 2015.
According to the Head of Policy, Research and Statistics, Federal Road Safety Corps, Dr. Kayode Olagunju, who disclosed this on Saturday at the Cross River State Command in Calabar, 68.7 per cent of the road crashes were caused by over-speeding.
He said this while addressing stakeholders in the transport sector on the introduction of the speed limiters beginning from October 1.
He stated that commercial vehicles were involved in 60 per cent of the accidents.
He said, “Speed is a major issue when it comes to crashes on Nigerian roads. Not less than 11, 436 persons were killed in two years. In all, 73, 977 persons were either killed or injured in 2014/2015.
“Excess speed accounted for 26.5 per cent, loss of control- 22.9 per cent and dangerous driving – 9.4 per cent; all these are grouped under speed and they account for 68.7 per cent of crashes.”
“It is believed that if we successfully install the speed limiting device in commercial vehicles for now, we would reduce the crashes because about 60 per cent of the crashes involved commercial vehicles. We will start with commercial vehicles first on October 1.”
Olagunju explained that the device would stop drivers from exceeding a particular limit on the highway.
He stated further that the Corps was not interested in making money and the price of the device would not be fixed by it.
“We are not interested in making money. We are more concerned about the safety of road users and that is why we always work with stakeholders on most of these issues,” he said.
Dolapo is a writer and journalist who works with YNaija. He has interests in Christianity, politics and sports.
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