The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Gombe command, says no fewer than 59 deaths were recorded in 166 crashes between January and June in the state.

The corps commander of the FRSC, Felix Theman, stated this in an interview in Gombe.

Mr Theman said that 831 persons were involved in the crashes, 543 persons sustained various injuries, and 229 were unhurt.

While giving the breakdown of crashes, he said January had the highest number with 48 crashes and seven deaths, while June had the highest number of deaths, with 21 from 21 crashes.

He said the period showed that speeding, wrongful overtaking, overloading and the attitude of motorcyclists on the roads were the suspected causes of the crashes.

The commander said the command had taken measures to minimise road crashes in the year’s second half.

He said the command had strengthened enforcement to check phone use while driving, underage driving, overloading, speeding and other causes of crashes in the state.

“We are doing this amongst other measures of road safety because life has no duplicate. The 59 persons that died were contributing to the development of the nation.”

He said the attitude of riding motorcycles without side mirrors was an offence, and “we will not relent in enforcing the law in that regard”.

“We have been enforcing that, and once we arrest you, the provision of the law is there. You will pay the fine, so motorcyclists are to be guided,” he said.

(NAN)