The Lagos sector command of the Federal Road Safety Corps says it recorded 353 road crashes, which claimed 79 lives between January and August 2023.

The Lagos sector commander, Babatunde Farinloye, disclosed this during the 2023 Ember Months Campaign’s flag-off, jointly organised by the command and Guinness Nigeria Plc on Thursday.

Mr Farinloye said 603 others sustained different degrees of injury, some with permanent disabilities, in the same period under review. The sector commander attributed road crashes to speeding, excessive load and operational irresponsibility, saying that these underlined the abuse of the roads, the vehicles and the rights of other road users.

He noted that speed had been identified globally as a causal or aggravating element in almost 96 per cent of road traffic crashes, adding that its dimensions consisted of excessive and inappropriate speed.

Mr Farinloye said aside from speeding, overloading and irresponsibility, statistics also indicated the potential for a high rate of driving under the influence of drugs and alcohol during the festive period.

The sector commander said just a few days ago, in the morning, a crash between a luxury bus and a truck making a U-Turn at Kara end of Lagos-Ibadan Expressway led to the death of four passengers.

“These incidents constitute huge human capacity loss and high level of trauma, social cost and other consequences that may change the course of several destinies. This is the essence of our continuous campaign and interventions. Nobody’s life has to be untimely terminated as an inevitable price for mobility on the roads,” stated the FRSC official.

Mr Farinloye said that annually, over 1.3 million people die on roads worldwide, with about 50 million others sustaining various degrees of injury.

The sector commander added that developing nations (including Nigeria) accounted for about 91 per cent of world road fatalities, with nations losing three per cent to five per cent of their annual gross domestic product (GDP).

(NAN)