NO fewer than 2, 598 Nigerians died in road accidents between October, 2017 and March, 2018, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).
The NBS disclosed this in the Road Transport Data for 4th quarter, 2017 and 1st quarter, 2018, posted on its website.
The breakdown showed that 1, 306 Nigerians died in road accidents in the fourth quarter of 2017 while 1, 292 people died in accident in the first quarter of 2018.
The figure, however, showed a decline in road accidents in the country.
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According to the data, 2, 489 road accidents occurred in the fourth quarter of last year while 2,482 accidents were recorded in the first quarter of this year.
The bureau attributed the major cause of road crashes in the first quarter to speed violation as it accounted for 50.81 per cent of the total road accidents reported.
It stated that tyre burst and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 8.26 per cent and 8.42 per cent respectively of the total number of road accidents recorded.
The report said that in the fourth quarter of 2017 also, speed limit violation was the major cause of road crashes and accounted for 45.08 per cent of the total road crashes in the period.
It stated that loss of control and dangerous driving by motorists represented 10.08 per cent of crashes recorded in the period under review.
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The report further revealed that a total of 15, 815 Nigerians sustained varied degrees of injuries in road accidents during the six months period.
It also indicated that 8,466 Nigerians got injured in the accidents in first quarter while 7, 349 injury cases were recorded in the fourth quarter of 2017.
For the first quarter, it reported that 7,773 of the 8,466 injured Nigerians, representing 92 per cent were adults while the remaining 693, representing eight per cent were children.
Further analysis showed that 6,394 (76 per cent) of the injured Nigerians were male while 2,072 (24 per cent) were female.
For the fourth quarter of 2017, the report revealed that 6,855 (93 per cent) of the 7,349 Nigerians that got injured were adults, while the remaining 494 (seven per cent) were children.
It also showed that 5,366 male, representing 73 per cent were injured during the quarter, while 1,983 female, representing 27 per cent got injured within the period.
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In addition, the report showed that the number of national drivers’ licenses produced in the first quarter increased to 223, 107 from the 214, 256 produced in the fourth quarter, 2017.
“Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses in both quarters,’’ it said.
It said Ekiti and Kebbi States produced the least number of national drivers’ license in the first quarter.
According the report, Zamfara and Kebbi states produced the least numbers of licenses within the same period.
