73,504 People Die In Road Crashes In Nigeria
Fresh facts on Monday emerged that about 73, 504 lives were lost to fatal road crashes in 3,075 cases of accidents that occurred in Nigeria between 2016 and 2018 .
The Permanent Secretary, Lagos State Ministry of Transportation, Dr Taiwo Salaam who revealed this at a press held in Lagos to flag off the Bi-annual Road Safety campaign week in the state said about 34 deaths were recorded annually in 100, 000 population samples, with more number of people with different degrees of injuries were often accounted for.
Salaam said the safety week organized by the Lagos State Vehicle Services, (VIS) is designed to educate and enlighten the public on the various activities of the agency.
He stated further that in Nigeria, the National Bureau of Statistics reported at least 229,524 cases of road crashes between year 2000-2018, about 12,080 annually.
“This situation has major negative impacts on the socio-economic health of the country hence there is need for a more holistic and strategic plans especially as it concerns safer vehicles and road users in line with the UN Decade of Action. As regards the reduction of road crashes, may I seize this opportunity to urge you to install standardised C-Caution and retro-reflective tapes on your vehicles to aid motorists visibility at night, especially when there is breakdown of vehicles on the road. I would therefore urge Lagosians to be disciplined and patient”, he said.
According to him, the initiative is in tandem with the objectives of the present administration led by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to make traffic Management and transportation one of its cardinal focus, the state government has thus decided the employment of technology in line with world best practices.
“As you are all aware that the first cardinal objective of this present administration is traffic management and transportation, which is in line with the THEMES agenda in other to achieve his goal and objectives, therefore, today marks another streamlined efforts of His Excellency, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to ensure safety of lives and properties of the citizens of the state, which has been hallmark of his administration since he assumed office”, he said.
Salaam, who said the theme of this year’s event is “Employing Technology to enhance compliance and Safety on Lagos roads” declared that this year’s safety campaign week was aimed among other things to educate on new mode of enforcement in the state, the importance of pre-registration inspection, establishment of computerised vehicle Inspection service(LACVIS) centres.
He added that other aims of the programme include education on the service of accidents investigation unit, AIU, economic, social importance of vehicle maintenance, enlightenment of drivers, owners on how/where to obtain their vehicle particulars and the danger of obtaining forged/fake documents.
In his remark, Director of Vehicle Inspection Service, Eng Gbolahan Toriola, appealed to the members of the public to cooperate and support the agency as they would be visiting during the cause of the safety campaign week corporate organisation, motor parks, schools, union houses, state government ministries, departments, and agencies and other relevant stakeholders in the state to educate and inform them of the technology in place and how they work particularly as relates to compliance and enforcement of road traffic law.
