Road crashes reduced by 25% during Easter, says FRSC

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) yesterday said it recorded 120 crashes during this year’s Easter celebration as against 160 in the same period in 2018, representing 25 per cent reduction.

According to the FRSC Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, in a statement in Abuja, the commission’s records for the 2019 Easter special patrol when compared with 2018, 6,961 offenders were apprehended in 2019 as against 5,936 in 2018; and a total of 7,708 offences were recorded in 2019 compared to 6,551 in 2018.

He said that this height was achieved due to an overwhelming increase in the total number of personnel deployed for patrol operations, effective traffic control, prompt rescue operations, aggressive public enlightenment campaigns, as well as effective utilisation of the mass media, motor park rallies and advocacy programmes and clearing of obstructions.

“The commission will leverage and improve on this strategy for a better result in the future. The decrease in crashes recorded this year was because the Easter patrol operations were given a wider coverage than previous years when compared to the same period of Easter celebration in 2018 and this increased visibility has gone a long way in compelling drivers to abide by established traffic laws,” he said.

Kazeem stated that during this year’s Easter celebration, 1,128 persons were involved as against 1,163 persons in the same period in 2018, representing three per cent decrease. In the same vein, the total number of persons rescued with injuries in road crashes during the 2019 Easter celebration period was 513 compared to 534 in 2018, representing four per cent decrease.

While a total of 535 persons were rescued without injuries as against 577 persons in the previous year, representing a total of seven per cent decrease.

Also, he said that from the total number of 120 crashes that occurred during the period, five were fatal, representing 1.2 per cent of the entire crashes, resulting in a total of 46 deaths that represent 57.5 per cent of the total of 80 deaths recorded during the period.

The public relations officer said mobile court sittings were conducted across country during the period and that the progress recorded in the reduction of crashes this year is attributable to increase in public enlightenment, enforcement, traffic control, co-operation from stakeholders, prompt clearing of obstructions and the fully automated process of obtaining driver’s licence, which ensures that motorists must be trained in driving schools before they are qualified to apply for their licences.