The Federal Road Safety Corps(FRSC), Delta State Command, advises motorists to obey traffic rules and regulations to stem crashes on highways during and after the ember months.

Mr Bassey Eshiet, the Sector Commander of FRSC Delta Command, gave the advice on Thursday at the flag-off of Ember Months Campaign 2023 entitled: “Speed Thrills, Speed Kills, Drive Responsibly and Avoid Overloading”.

According to him, toward the end of every year the volume of traffic increases, coupled with high incidences of road traffic infractions.

“These infractions include route violation, excessive speeding, dangerous driving, wrongful overtaking, overloading, drunk driving, drivers fatigue and making call while driving.

“These risk factors result in Road Traffic Crashes with fatalities, and the high vehicular volume due to surge in movement of people results in traffic gridlock, fatigue and sometimes Road Traffic Crash amongst others.

“The Corps’ determination to check these trends and ensure free flow of traffic culminated in 2023 Ember months road safety campaign prior to the commencement of year 2023 End of year Special Patrol Operation from December 2023 to January 2024.

“The aim of the campaign is to immensely reduce crashes and to ensure as much as possible the elimination of death from crashes that may occur if any,” he said.

Eshiet noted that the higher the speed of a vehicle, the shorter the time a driver had to stop and avoid a crash adding that speeding contributed to the severity of the impact when a collision occur.

According to him, controlling vehicle speed can prevent crashes and reduce the impact when they do occur, lessening the severity of injuries sustained by the victim.

“What is obvious to you may not be to others, most people don’t think `Road Safety’ as long as they have a good vehicle and a reasonable stretch of road.

“A car travelling at 50km/h will typically require 13 metres to stop, while a car travelling at 40km/h will stop in less than 8.5 metres.

“An increase in average speed of 1 km/h typically results in a 37 per cent higher risk of a crash involving injury, with a four per cent to five per cent increase for crashes that result in fatalities.

“For car occupants in a crash with an impact speed of 80km/h, the likelihood of death is 20 times what it would have been at an impact speed of 30km/h.