Date: 2017-12-08

No fewer than 35 people died in different road accidents in Kwara State between July and September, 2017, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed.

The NBS on Tuesday released its Road Transport Data for the third quarter of 2017, which was posted on its website, www.nigerianstat.gov.ng. The report was prepared with data from the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC).

The report said that a total of 50 road crashes occurred in Kwara State during the period under review, resulting in the death of 35 people, while 167 people sustained various degrees of injuries. In all, a total of 380 people were involved in the accidents.

According to the report, speed violation was the highest causative factor of road accidents in Kwara as it accounts for 29 of the 50 road crashes witnessed in the state while loss of control was the second highest.

The report further stated that 3,112 national driver's licenses were issued in Kwara during the period under review, while a total of 1,050 vehicle number plates were produced in the quarter.

On the national level, the NBS road transport data shows that 1,070 Nigerians died in road accidents in the third quarter of 2017 while a total of 6,803 others got injured in the accidents.

The report disclosed that 981 of the 1,070 that died, representing 91.7 per cent of the figure were adults while the remaining 89, representing 8.3 per cent of the figure were children.

A breakdown of the figure showed that 815 of the number were males, representing 76.2 per cent while 255 were females, representing 23.8 per cent.

The report reflected that 2,478 road crashes occurred in different parts of the country during the period under review.

It attributed the major cause of accidents to speed violation, which it said accounted for 44.51 per cent of the total accidents reported in the quarter.

It stated that loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 10.41 per cent and 9.52 per cent of the total accident recorded respectively.

The report noted that 6,419 of the 6,803 that got injured, representing 94.4 per cent of the figure were adults while the remaining 384, representing 5.7 per cent of the figure were children.

It further stated that 5,110 male, representing 75 per cent, got injured in road accidents in the quarter while 1,693 female, representing 25 per cent got injured.

According to the report, estimated vehicle population in the country as at third quarter was put at 11,547,236 with the total population put at 193.3 million in 2016.

In addition, it stated that data on the category of vehicles involved in road accident reflected that 58 per cent were commercial (2,000), 40.6 per cent were private (1,401), 1.4 per cent were government (48) and the remaining were diplomat.

The report said that FCT, Abuja recorded the highest number of road crashes in the quarter, closely followed by Kaduna and Kogi states while Borno and Bayelsa recorded the least. The report stated that 200,565 national driver’s licenses were produced in the period under review. It stated that Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of driver’s licenses while Zamfara and Kebbi produced the least numbers of national driver’s license. Similarly, it stated that 75,958 vehicle number plates were produced in the quarter. It also stated that Delta and FCT produced the highest number of vehicle plate numbers while Ekiti and Rivers produced the least numbers of vehicle plate numbers in the quarter.