Ifeanyi Onuba, Abuja

The National Bureau of Statistics on Monday said Nigeria recorded 1,279 deaths in 2,503 road crashes in the second quarter of this year.

The NBS in its road transport report which was made available to our correspondent blamed speed violation as a major reason for the road crashes.

This, it added, accounted for 44.4 per cent of the total road accident during the period.

It said loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 12.92 per cent and 8.06 per cent of the total road crashes recorded.

The report reads in part, “A total of 8,270 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded. 7,805 of the 8,270 Nigerians that got injured, representing 94 per cent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 465 Nigerians, representing six per cent of the figure are children.

“6,217 male Nigerians, representing 75 per cent, got injured in road crashes in Q2 while 2,053 female Nigerians, representing 25 per cent, got injured.

“Similarly, a total of 1,279 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in Q2. 1,207 of the 1,279 Nigerians that got killed, representing 94 per cent of the figure, are adults while the remaining 72 Nigerians, representing six per cent of the figure are children.

“1,022 male Nigerians, representing 80 per cent, got killed in road crashes in Q2 while 257 female Nigerians, representing 20 per cent got killed.”

The report put the vehicle population in Nigeria as of the second quarter at 11,506,863.

It said with the total population of the country currently at 193,392,517, Nigeria’s vehicle per population ratio is now 0.06.

Further breakdown from the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in the second quarter showed that 58.59 per cent or 2,363 are commercial, 40.22 per cent or 1,622 are private, 1.14 per cent or 46 are government and the remaining two belonged to diplomats.

It said the Federal Capital Territory recorded the highest number of road crashes in the second quarter. This, it added, was closely followed by Kaduna and Niger states while Borno and Bayelsa states recorded the least.

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