NARTO blames accidents on bad roads

The National President of the Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), Alhaji Kassim Ibrahim Bataiya, has blamed over 70 percent of road accidents involving its members’ vehicles on the poor state of the nation’s roads.

Addressing the opening session of the 18th annual general meeting of the association in Sokoto yesterday, he said that rather than careless driving, “bad and dilapidated road pavements account for a significant percentage of accidents involving our vehicles, particularly trucks.”

According to him, accidents involving trucks carrying highly inflammable materials such as petrol often result in high casualties with devastating impact on the environment.

This, he said, was in addition to the cost of paying compensations, cost of litigations and hospital bills for those with injuries while also taking care of the wear and tear of the vehicles and thereby increasing the cost of maintenance.