No fewer than 2,422 persons were killed and 11,961 injured in 3,708 road accidents between January and June of this year, according to a half-year report by the Federal Road Safety Corps.

This, according to the corps, indicated that road crashes had increased due to over-speeding by drivers.

Corps commandant in charge of public education, Jonah Agwu, who briefed newsmen in Abuja on Friday, said that the FRSC had commenced ‘Operation Octopus’ to stem the rising rate of road crashes in some road corridors across the country.

He said the operation which commenced last Friday, would involve 136 patrol vehicles, 32 ambulances,11 tow trucks,38 bikes and 2,605 personnel.

Agwu added that the exercise would hold in various routes including Kaduna-Kakau-Kateri-Sabon Wuse; Kaduna-Zaria; Chiromawa-Zaria.

Others are Ibadan-Ife-Ilesha; Ibadan-Ogunmakin-Ogere; Ibadan-Oyo-Ogbomoso;Lokoja-Abaji; Lokoja-Zariagi-Okene; Abuja-Abaji;Abuja-Suleja-Sabon Wuse and Benin-Asaba; Benin-Auchi; Onitsha-Owerri.

“The exercise will also hold on Jos-Hawan Kibo-Forest; Keffi-Akwanga-Forest; Akwanga-Lafia-Makurdi; and Jos-Toro-Bauchi roads,” he said.

Agwu said that the operation would involve public enlightenment, mobile speed control, mobile courts to address speed violation, over-loading and seatbelt use violation.

This, according to the corps,
indicated that road crashes had
increased due to over-speeding by
drivers.

Codedrock: .

Olugbenger:
pls which over speeding are they talking about?
Is it the one that motorists engage in during traffic jam or on the pot holes infested roads?
It is very disheartening that public office holders can still attribute the major cause of road crashes to be over speeding.
Just imagine the relative number of human lives wasted and destinies cut short by severe injuries.
Worse is that these figures are even official, implying greater havocs have occured just this year alone.
Fix the damn roads and stop giving silly excuses for ur shortcomings.

kinharold: Please, let me ask; I pray I get a good answer cos I really don't understand it myself.

Accidental deaths are highly regrettable but sometimes i wonder why there is so much fuss about plane crash and deaths?, NASS will probe it, the presidency will be involved, Airline is banded, sometimes minister and some other high level office holders loose their job. Government gives out huge bailout funds for the aviation industry.

On the other hand, deaths in road accidents in a year is in Thousands. The above figure of 2,422 is just for 6 months not the whole year yet. That means we have about 400 deaths every month on road accidents and nothing much is being done about it. In about the same week of the Associated Airline crash that killed about 13 persons, the boat accidents on the River Niger killed scores of persons including 29 women but nothing was head about it after that day.

Hope it is not because air passengers/victims are most-likely of the rich class.

Olugbenger:
pls which over speeding are they talking about?
Is it the one that motorists engage in during traffic jam or on the pot holes infested roads?
It is very disheartening that public office holders can still attribute the major cause of road crashes to be over speeding.
Just imagine the relative number of human lives wasted and destinies cut short by severe injuries.
Worse is that these figures are even official, implying greater havocs have occured just this year alone.
Fix the damn roads and stop giving silly excuses for ur shortcomings.

Olugbenger:
pls which over speeding are they talking about?
Is it the one that motorists engage in during traffic jam or on the pot holes infested roads?
It is very disheartening that public office holders can still attribute the major cause of road crashes to be over speeding.
Just imagine the relative number of human lives wasted and destinies cut short by severe injuries.
Worse is that these figures are even official, implying greater havocs have occured just this year alone.
Fix the damn roads and stop giving silly excuses for ur shortcomings.

ow11:

From your posts it is obvious that you do not travel on the highways.. Yes the roads are bad but how does that excuse a driver going at 120kmh on a single carriage road with potholes? Is that not foolishness and lack of ownership....it is so sweet to blame everyone but yourself when bad things happen.

There are many threads on nairaland glorifying overspeeding on our very dangerous roads and even in Abuja and in lekki, Nigerians continue to die because even though the roads are good, the need to speed is greater than the need to stay alive.


On the other hand, the FRSC needs to put up more road signs on the highways and stop chatting shit....they are Nigerians and are not responsible for fixing roads but they can make signage to alert drivers on dangerous spots on the highways.... Even pothole signs until such a time that the roads are fixed.

...the crackdown however should have special focus on commercial drivers as these are the daredevils that continue to kill people in the name of making an extra buck

Olugbenger:
pls which over speeding are they talking about?
Is it the one that motorists engage in during traffic jam or on the pot holes infested roads?
It is very disheartening that public office holders can still attribute the major cause of road crashes to be over speeding.
Just imagine the relative number of human lives wasted and destinies cut short by severe injuries.
Worse is that these figures are even official, implying greater havocs have occured just this year alone.
Fix the damn roads and stop giving silly excuses for ur shortcomings.

Aromas:

Wot is d essences of fixing d road and yet d rate of speed dos not reduce, I c no reasons why you don't just think with dat your black head b4 commenting!!!!!
What as government do with dis1 now?? 2years back we know the state of road in our country.

obailala:

I totally disagree with ur assertion above.. The FRSC is right on this one... Overspeeding and grossly irresponsible driving is the primary cause of 80% of the accidents in Nigeria...

Is it not in Nigeria u see commercial drivers making a trip from lagos to abuja and back the same day (speed must be involved)??
Is it not in Nigeria u see drivers drinking kai kai before a journey to 'clear their eyes' (talk of foolishness)??
Is it not in Nigeria u see drivers increasing their speed to 'fly' across potholes??
Is it not in Nigeria that even a dead goat can secure a driving license??
Is it not in Nigeria that vehicles cruise at over 140km/hr?... do we even have a highway speed limit in the country??... _{even if we do, our leaders are the first to break the rules.}

If the roads are riddled with potholes, a sensible driver should slow down... but the opposite is the case in Nigeria.. u see vehicles cruising at over 140km/hr on pothole riddled roads, dangerous bridges and bends etc _{(no reasonable country allows up to that speed on its highways).}.. when disaster occurs, every one screams 'bad road'.. I beg to differ, the culprit is bad driving... unfortunately the bad drivers put every other driver at risk and everyone becomes a victim..

nnocurruption: imagine the nonsense 2422 and I am sure the numbers is far greater than that, and gej is out there doing burials with public funds wasting scarce resources look at how fat is son is and how big that illiterate pumpki is last lady punk ass dumb empty head president they don't even care about education anymore.

Olugbenger:
So you mean we should not blame the Government for bad roads but we confront the average Nigerian commercial driver who is described as a weed smoker or drunkard according to ur silly statements.
Whose responsiblity is it to create and repair road?
who fault is it that even a goat can obtain a driver's license?

Whose fault is that Government agencies such as the FRSC fail to implement standard speed limits on roads and keep failing to prosecute violators?
Do u reason properly at all?