Samuel Bello, Abuja
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that 2,478 road crashes occurred in the third quarter of 2017.
It reported that speed violations are the major cause of road crashes in the third quarter and it accounted for 44.51 percent of the total road crashes reported.
The Bureau disclosed this in its “Road Transport Data Q3 2017” released yesterday in Abuja.
It stated that loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 10.41 percent and 9.52 percent of the total road crashes recorded.
According to the Bureau, a total of 6,803 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded. 6,419 of the 6,803 Nigerians that got injured, representing 94.4 percent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 384 Nigerians, representing 5.7 percent of the figure are children.
“5,110 male Nigerians, representing 75 percent got injured in road crashes in the third quarter, while 1,693 female Nigerians, representing 25 percent got injured.
Similarly, a total of 1,070 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in the third quarter. 981 of the 1,070 Nigerians that got killed, representing 91.7 percent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 89 Nigerians, representing 8.3 percent of the figure are children.
“815 male Nigerians, representing 76.2 percent, got killed in road crashes in the third quarter, while 255 female, representing 23.8 percent got killed.
NBS reported further that the estimated vehicle population in Nigeria as at the third quarter of 2017 was put at 11,547,236 with the total population of the country puts at 193,392,517 in 2016.
“Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is put 0.06. Data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in Q3 2017 reflected that 58% of vehicles are commercial (2,000), 40.6% are private (1,401), 1.4% are government (48) and the remaining are diplomat.
The statistics office also revealed that FCT recorded the highest number of road crashes in Q3 2017 and closely followed by Kaduna and Kogi States, while Borno and Bayelsa States recorded the least.
“A total of 200,565 national drivers licenses were produced in Q3 2017. Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses while Zamfara and Kebbi States produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license.
“Similarly, a total of 75,958 vehicle number plates were produced in Q3 2017. Delta and FCT state produced the highest number of vehicle plate numbers while Ekiti and Rivers States produced the least numbers of vehicle plate numbers in Q3 2017.”