FRSC reveals how expired tyres, speeding, night trips, others claim 4,387 lives in six months

By Ezurike Ugochukwu

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has revealed that total of 4,387 people died in road crashes in the first six months of 2023 owing to recklessness and inexperience on the side of most of the drivers.

The Corps said the 4,387 people were killed across the 36 states and the FCT which implies an average of 731 people in a month and about 24 a day.

Assistant Corps Marshal, Bisi Kazeem, Corps Public Education Officer, made the disclosure on Sunday in Abuja.

Kazeem

He said, “From January to June, a total of 4,387 people were killed as a result of road traffic crashes. The Corps also recorded 14,108 injuries from the crashes within the same period.

“These crashes occurred as a result of night trips, fatigue, route violation, dangerous overtaking, use of worn out/expired tyres and speeding.

“And you know our men do not operate at night, as such these drivers take advantage of our absence on the road at night to violate established traffic regulations.”

The Corps image maker reiterated that painstaking investigation and research have revealed that one of the primary reasons for those crashes was that most of the vehicles were manned by untrained or partially trained and inexperienced drivers on wheels.

“Before now, the key issue was their inability to meet basic safety standards.

Tank farm

“This necessitated the establishment of commands in Tank Farms to ensure that before any tanker loads inflammable products, it must meet the maximum safety standards.

“At the moment, we can say to a reasonable extent that the compliance level, particularly that of mandatory installation of speed limit devices though not 100 per cent is quite impressive,” he said.

As campaign intensifies and special patrol operations are organised within intervals which has so far resulted in massive impoundment of vehicles whose owners did not comply.

“We still issue notice of offence ticket to them and in most cases compel them to get them fixed,” he said.

Mr Kazeem also said the Corps recorded 14,108 injuries from the crashes and rescued 15,789 persons unhurt in road traffic crashes within the same period.

He said there was no rise in road crashes involving trucks and tankers, rather there was a decline.

He, however, said the corps recorded a slight rise in fatalities where a reasonable number of people were killed in a few crashes.

According to Kazeem, the Corps recorded a total of 4,691 road crashes from January to June.

To reduce fatalities on the roads, the FRSC boss said the corps was engaging truck owners on the need to have a functional onboard camera for round-the-clock monitoring of the activities of drivers.

He added that the Corps had also deepened engagement in the installation of safety valves in tankers to eliminate all incidences of spilling contents on the roads whenever accident occurred which goes along way to guarantee road worthiness.