11,363 road transport crashes recorded in 2016 — NBS

NATIONAL Bureau of Statistics (NBS) on Thursday put the total number of recorded road transport crashes in 2016 at 11,363.

It attributed speed violation as the major cause of road crashes during the year as it accounted for 33.86 per cent of the total road crashes reported.

Loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 15.43 percent and 8.53 per cent of the total road crashes recorded.

Data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in 2016 reflected that 56.6 per cent of vehicles are commercial (8,876), 41.6 per cent are private (6,521), 1.70 per cent are government (270) and the remaining 0.10 per cent are diplomat (15).

FCT recorded the highest number of road crashes in 2016 and closely followed by Kaduna and Niger states while Borno and Bayelsa states recorded the least.

Consequently, 30,105 Nigerians got injured.

According to NBS, of the 30,105 people who were injured in the crashes, 28,250 or 94 per cent were adults while the remaining 1,855 representing six percents are children.

Similarly, 22, 705 male representing 75 per cent, got injured while 7,400 female representing 25 per cent got injured.

On fatalities, the statistical office disclosed that a total of 5,053 individuals died in the road traffic crashes, which happened during the year under review.

Kaduna, Oyo and Ogun states top list of the number of deaths recorded.

Out of this figure, 4,696 representing 93 per cent of the figure were adults while the remaining 357 souls representing seven per cent of the figure were children.

A further breakdown of the figures indicated that 3, 970 representing 79 per cent of those who died in the accidents were male while the remaining 1,083, which is the equivalent of 25 per cent were female.

Total vehicle population in the country in 2016 was put at 11,387,185.

“Commercial vehicles accounted for 53.8 per cent of the total vehicle population in Nigeria in 2016, private vehicles accounted for 44.5 per cent, government vehicles accounted for 1.65 and diplomat vehicles accounted for 0.1 per cent.

“With the total population of the country put at 193,392,517 in 2016, Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is put 0.06.”

A total of 889,834 national drivers licenses were produced in 2016.

Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses while Yobe and Zamfara states produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license.

Similarly, a total of 462,395 vehicle number plates were produced in 2016 with Lagos and FCT producing the highest number of vehicle plate numbers while Yobe and Zamfara states produced the least numbers of vehicle plate numbers in 2016.