By Yinka Shokunbi
It is now two years that the Lagos state goverment put in place a restriction law on motorcycle operation within the metropolis.
The law prohibits motorcyclists from plying a total number of 475 roads in the State, chief among which are the major highways.
Marking two years since the restriction law came into being in the state, Governor Babatunde Fashola recently, noted “altogether, there are 9,100 roads in Lagos State. Motorcycles below 200cc are restricted on only 475 of these roads, which represent 5.6% of roads in Lagos”.
According to Fashola, “the result and impact of this decision have been tremendous. Prior to the enactment of the law, we were recording an average of 16 motorcycle-related deaths across the state every month and an average of 646 injured patients from motorcycle related serious accidents at states secondary and tertiary hospitals.
“As at March this year, our statistics show only one to two motorcycle-related deaths and less than 100 motorcycle accident related injuries occur in a month. No doubt, we have all the reasons to thump our chest that we have been responsive and responsible in the discharge of our duty to the people of Lagos”, said the governor.
Ever since Lagos placed a partial ban on the use of motorcycles in some parts of the metropolis, many other states have followed suit.
Some of the states with such restriction laws include: Edo, Abia, Kaduna, Kano, FCT and Rivers, among others.
On May 11, 2011, the United Nations Assembly adopted the period 2011 – 2020 as the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety; a time to concentrate all efforts at the official goal of ‘stabilising and then reducing’ global road traffic fatalities by 2020.
In his speech at the launch of the event, UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon, noted, “Through the decade of Action for Road safety, I hope we can save human lives. It is totally unacceptable that more than one million people die on the roads and more than fifty million are injured.
The human costs are profound and the economic cost is staggering, more than $100 billion in developing countries. If we lead by example, we can save millions of lives.
This is what the UN is working very hard for a safer world for all”.
According to the United Nations, global road death and injury has indeed become a “major public health problem with a broad range of social and economic consequences which, if unaddressed, may affect the sustainable development of countries and hinder progress towards the Millennium Development Goals”, the UN General Assembly proclaimed the UN Decade of Action for Road Safety 2011-2020 in a landmark Resolution co-sponsored by 100 countries.
The body then went ahead to give ten reasons why it needed to act on road accidents to include:
•Nearly 1.3 million people are killed on the world’s roads each year.
•Up to 50 million people are injured, and many remain disabled for life
•90% of casualties from road deaths occur in developing countries.
•Annual road traffic deaths are forecast to rise to 1.9 million people by 2020.
•Road traffic injuries are the number one cause of death for young people worldwide.
•By 2015 road traffic injuries will be the leading health burden for children over the age of five years in developing countries.
•The economic cost to developing countries is at least $100 billion a year.
•Road traffic injuries place an immense burden on hospitals and health systems generally.
•Road crashes are preventable.
•A global Action Plan includes practical measures, which, if implemented, could save millions of lives.
Following the declaration by the UN in 2011, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) set out to adopt and domesticate the UN Action Plan by developing a number programmes suitable for every road user in the country.
The mission of Safe Road in Nigeria, according to then Corps Public Education Officer, Jonas Agwu (now Assistant Corps Marshall) “is to reduce road crash deaths and injuries by 50% by 2020”.
Agwu, who weekly writes in the Nigerian press to enlighten and educate on importance of safety on our roads, explained why it has become imperative to declare a decade of action of road safety.
According to him, “In Nigeria, our major challenge with many of our road users is the show of irresponsible act or what you may call careless attitude about others who are on the roads.
A lot of road users do not think about fellow road users as having equal right to safety as he does and this selfishly leads to avoidable accidents”.
The Education Corp Marshall pointed out that the FRSC’s Safe Road campaign has been in place since inception in 1988, “but we now intensified the campaign by introducing new initiatives as a response to United Nation’s Decade of Action for Road Safety”.
Some of the reasons why the FRSC road campaign initiatives became necessary in Nigeria as listed in the official web site include:
•Road crashes kill more than HIV/AIDS and Malaria.
•There’s someone you know who has been killed or injured in a crash.
•People are killed or injured in road crashes every day.
•All road crashes can be prevented.
•Most crashes are caused by the driver’s behaviour and not always as a result of bad roads.
•The Idea of a “Safe Road” in Nigeria is more of changing our driving behaviour than advocating for good road infrastructure.
•We can reduce deaths and injuries due to crashes by 50% if we make a commitment to: not drink and drive, not over speed, wear seat belts and helmets, not use phone or eat while driving, obey traffic rules and tell people about Safe Road Nigeria.
In recent months, there seemed to have been a significant rise in the number of road crashes especially ones involving trailers and articulated vehicles on major high ways all over the country and Nigerians are not only worried about the increasing rates of these accidents and deaths, but about the unfortunate fact that those injured who may never get the desired medical attention as a result of incessant strikes by health workers which keep most of the public hospitals shut or inaccessible.
For instance, available data from the FRSC shows that between 2007 and 2010 alone, a total of 4,017 Tankers/Trailers crashes were recorded on Nigerian roads.
There is a yearly average of 1,148 cases and monthly average of 96 crashes. Not less than 607 tankers/trailers crashes were recorded in 2007, the figures rose to 1,229 in 2008, which is 102.47% increase. In 2009, the crash records reduced by 1.30% to 1,213 but by June 2010, 968 crashes had been recorded on Nigerian roads.
From the FRSC data also, between 2007 and June, 2010, a total of 4,076 persons were killed in crashes involving tankers and trailers.
In 2007, the crashes led to the death of 805 persons. It rose to 1,221 in 2008 (51.68% increase), and 1,085 representing 11.14% reduction in 2009, and as at June 2010, 965 persons were killed.
On the average 97.05 persons were killed monthly in crashes involving tankers and trailers between 2007 and June 2010.During the same period 2007 to June 2010, a total of 12,994 persons were also injured in tanker/trailer crashes with a monthly and daily average of 309.38 and 10.16 respectively. In 2007, 2,169 persons got injured.
In 2008, the figure rose to 3,891 which is 79.39% as the figure reduce to 3,714 which is a further 4.55% decrease in 2009. Also, between January and June 2010, 4,076 deaths were recorded.
In 2007, 4,430 persons were involved in the various road crashes resulting in 57.99% increase; 6,999 persons were involved in 2008 and in 2009, the figure rose by 14.64% to 8024, and by June 2010, as many as 6909 recorded persons were involved in tankers/trailers crashes.
In 2007, the highest tanker/trailer RTC cases occurred in Ogun State with 54 cases (8.90%), Oyo, 40 cases (6.59%), FCT, 39 (6.43%), Kaduna 39 (6.43%), Ondo 38 (6.26%), Kano, 38 (6.26%) and Niger, 37 (6.09%).
Least articulated crashes were recorded in Adamawa State with only one crash, which is 0.16% of the total crashes.
In 2008, Ogun State also recorded the highest crashes of 187, which is 15.22% of the total. Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Benue and Kaduna had total crashes of 104 (8.46%), 95 (7.73%), 88 (7.16%), 67 (5.45%), and 64 (5.21%), respectively. Least crashes were recorded in Adamawa, Bayelsa and Ebonyi with 1 (0.08%), respectively.
In 2009, the highest crashes involving “tankers/trailers” occurred in Ogun state with 175 (14.43%). Kwara 95 (7.83%), Kogi 94 (7.75%), Nasarawa 88 (7.25%) and Benue 67 (5.52%) followed in that order.
The least crashes involving “tankers and trailers” occurred in Adamawa, Taraba, Enugu and Kebbi with 1 case (0.08%) each.
As at June in 2010, Ogun with 104 (10.74%) cases had the highest number of tanker/trailer crashes, FCT 87 (8.99%), and Nasarawa 81, (8.37%), Kogi 68 (7.02%). Taraba and Adamawa states recorded the least crashes with one case (0.10%) each.
Since the decade of action on safe roads commenced in 2011, the Commission has initiated a number of programmes and creative ideas to educate, enlighten, inform, and prevent road accidents through transforming from manual to digital recording, which helps to track offenders to crashes.
According to the former Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka, in his annual report, “In 2013, despite rising crashes, FRSC rescued the highest number of road crash victims alive even in the face of increased motorisation in the country.
“This has been bench marked as we record the time of report of a crash and time of arrival at scene. The high number of rescued victims validated our strategy of deploying ambulances on the highways code named Zebra.
“From five Zebra points in 2010, we now have 23 Zebra points along critical corridors of the highways.
“The record for the period in 2013 indicates that 461 crashes were recorded as against 426 in 2012.The record also indicates that 1438 were injured in 2013 as against 1415 in 2012, while the number of people killed in 2013 stood at 252, against 244 in 2012. Further analysis indicates that 788 vehicles were involved in 2013 as against 660 in 2012, while the number of people rescued alive in 2013 was 1519 as against 1866 in 2012. Arrests for traffic infractions in 2013 stood at 11,808 offenders, for violating 12,919 traffic offences, with 1013 arraigned before the mobile court, with 867 convicted with fines, while 146 were acquitted”, Chidoka noted.
The FRSC however hopes to win the war against road accidents before the end of the decade of action in 2020, which many say remains a dream hoping for realisation.
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