Despite continuous campaigns by relevant agencies, including the media, there has been an increase in road fatalities.
With the number of carnage on our roads, it will not be out of place for the government to declare state of emergency on our roads, as we enter the period of yuletide.
According to a Motor Accident Returns report from the Motor Traffic and Transport Department (MTTD), A total of 1,985 persons lost their lives through road accidents between January and October 2022.
The report said 1,564 of the casualties were males, whilst 421 were females.
13,109 people sustained various degrees of injuries, involving 2,210 pedestrian knockdowns.
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The report said it recorded 12,565 crashes from January to October 2022, involving 21,593 vehicles.
It said 7,307 commercial vehicles were involved in road crashes within the said period, with 9,735 of them being private vehicles and 4,551 motorcycles.
The number, in the opinion of this newspaper,is alarming and deserves efforts to bring it under manageable limits.
Road traffic crashes have negative impact on all the sectors of the economy, particularly the attendant loss of lives and damage to properties that come with them. These are human beings, not just numbers representing inanimate objects.
In our opinion, the carnage on our roads is largely due to the non-enforcement of road usage laws to the letter. Another major reason is the bad nature of our roads. The bad roads in this country, coupled with the indiscipline on the part of motorists, are the reason for the increase in road accidents.
The indiscipline breeds the impunity that results in road accidents. For despite the high rate of accidents in the country, not many of the culprits, have been prosecuted and convicted for their roles in such calamities.
This newspaper, has observed that, most road crashes are due to human error, and they are a huge waste of human and economic resources. The ways to curb them are attitudinal change and more effective enforcement of the laws regulating road usage.
