On Friday, the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Niger said Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) claimed no fewer than 473 lives in the state between January 2022 and June 2023.

The state sector commander, Kumar Tsukwam, disclosed this in an interview in Minna, the state capital.

Mr Tsukwam said that in view of the high number of deaths recorded through RTCs in the state, the command was working tirelessly to reduce crashes to the barest minimum.

He explained that within the period under review, the command recorded 766 RTCs, with about 5,272 persons involved, with 2,607 sustaining various degrees of injuries.

The sector commander also said 204 RTCs were fatal, 483 were serious, and 79 were minor.

He explained that human, vehicular and environmental factors caused the RTCs.

However, he said the corps concentrated on the drivers during sensitisations because little mistakes could lead to accidents as they drive and control the vehicles.

He cautioned road users, especially commercial drivers, against night journeys, because of the bad condition of many roads and security challenges across the country.

Mr Tsukam urged residents of the state to always respect traffic rules and regulations while using the roads to prevent RTCs.

According to the FRSC boss, under the global framework and plan of action, there are five pillars the corps considers during operations.

He said these five pillars are the vehicle, road mobility, driver, road user and post-crash.

“Under this arrangement, it is supposed to take us a maximum of 15 minutes to get to the scene of an accident to save live,” he said.

(NAN)