20 children, 87 adults killed in yuletide road crashes

Twenty children died in road traffic accidents between December 19 and 28, while 75 others sustained injuries from the crashes, the Federal Road Safety Commission said on Monday.
This information was contained in a statement issued by Jonas Agwu, the FRSC’s Public Education Officer.
The statement said that 144 children of the 239 children involved in road accidents during the period were rescued unhurt.
It would be recalled that the FRSC on December 19 began a Special Patrol for the Christmas and New Year celebration tagged: “Operation Zero Tolerance.”
The commission deployed 34,000 personnel and equipment in critical and major highways across the country as well as four helicopters for aerial surveillance.
The FRSC had said on December 24 that 107 died and 1,398 persons were in 214 road accidents between December 19 and 23.
It said that the figures represented a reduction in the number of deaths and injured when compared to 156 deaths and 1,882 injured persons in 236 accidents in the corresponding period of 2012.
The statement, therefore, advised parents and drivers to ensure that children were “appropriately restrained” in vehicles during travels.
It added that those under 12 years should be restrained in the rear seats in line with the provisions of the National Road Traffic Regulations, 2012.
This, it said, was necessary because air bags could injure or kill young children travelling in front seats in the event of accident.
Agwu said in the statement: “One of the most effective measures to protect occupants from injury in the event of a crash is the fitment and use of seat-belts and child restraints.
“Restraints save lives and reduce injury severity – all vehicle occupants should be appropriately restrained when travelling.”
The statement said statistics indicate that seat belt usage reduce the risk of fatality among front seat passengers by 40 per cent to 50 per cent.
It said that the use of the belt could also reduce risk of fatality for rear seat passengers by between 25 per cent and 75 per cent.
The statement said that Child restraints reduce deaths among infants by approximately 70 per cent and deaths among small children by between 54 per cent and 80 per cent.
It said that FRSC had mandated its commanding officers to intensify enforcement of traffic rules bothering on child safety during the ongoing special patrol, which will end on Jan. 12, 2014.
The statement directed the officers to conduct routine checks on vehicles conveying children to ensure that they are properly positioned through restraints.
From the Kaduna Sector Command of the FRSC comes the report that 24 people were killed in 28 road crashes recorded in the state during the Yuletide.
The Sector Commander, Olu Olagunju, made this known on Monday in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria in Kaduna.
Olagunju also said that four people were injured in the crashes.
He said: “These accidents all occurred from the 20 to 29 December, 2013 on various roads
“By this time last year, we had recorded 50 crashes with 36 deaths.”
Olagunju attributed the crashes to high volume of traffic on road, excessive speeding and overloading.
“The primary factors that led to road crashes are avoidable and can be managed by the drivers and passengers themselves,” he said.
He said that a total of 142,000 passengers travelled through 48 motor parks monitored by the command across the state within the week.
“We have records, so we advice passengers to board vehicles from motor parks instead of boarding buses from the road side,” he said.
He said motorists should ensure that passengers give adequate information in their manifest before embarking on any journey.
Olagunju said this would assist in reaching out to family and friends of accident victims.