Bauchi- 87 persons have died while 377 others sustained varying degrees of injuries between January and June this year, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Bauchi State has said.
A copy of the FRSC road crash report for the period obtained by newsmen in Bauchi, showed that there were 94 road crashes across the twenty local government areas of the state, involving 719 people.
This included 67 children with 7 of them killed while 33 sustained different degrees of injuries.
The report also showed that a total of 154 different types of vehicles were involved in the accidents.
According to the report, January recorded the highest number of deaths with 35 people killed, 61 injured in 13 cases of accidents involving 130 people.
June had the second highest number of casualties with 13 killed, 59 injured in 18 different cases of accidents involving 141 people.
The report further showed that May had the least record of casualties with 7 people killed, 57 injured in 13 auto crash cases involving 94 people.
Speaking to newsmen on Wednesday in his office in Bauchi, the Sector Commander of the FRSC in the State, Ibrahim Abubakar, said the commission had made frantic efforts to reduce the number of road crashes across the State.
He said road crashes in the State had reduced significantly except the Bauchi-Gombe and Bauchi-Jos Roads which still rank high.
According to him, “Road crashes in Bauchi has been on the low side except the Bauchi-Gombe and Bauchi-Jos Roads. These are places with almost daily crashes.
” The major culprits in these accidents are the Opel Vectra drivers. The are responsible for almost all the head-on collision crashes on these high ways.
“Next to them are the Hummer Buses. I don’t know what is always the problem, but I think it is mostly loss of control of the drivers.”
Abubakar lamented that the FRSC has offices in only 234 Local Government Areas out of the 744 in the country calling on the Federal Government to urgently equip the FRSC with more staff and logistics to increase safety on Nigerian roads.
He said that the 5 Area Commands in the State has 2 functional operational vehicles each but said more are needed.
He said: ” FRSC in Bauchi need Ambulance and Medium Towing Vans. We also need more staff and the Sector Command has two functional vehicles which we use for our patrols.
” Under normal circumstances, we are not supposed to go on Highway patrol with only one patrol Van and four staff. We need more vehicles and more staff on the highway. This is the only way we will secure the highway.”
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