The Federal Roads Safety Corps has revealed that it recorded a total of 103 road traffic crashes during the 2021 Easter patrol, a 14 per cent reduction from the 200 recorded in the same period in 2019.
The 2021 Easter patrol lasted from March 31, 2021 to April 7, 2021.
The Corps Public Education Officer, Bisi Kazeem, revealed that 1,575 routes were covered, 3,205 vehicles impounded and 5,630 offenders were apprehended for committing 6,880 offences.
He said the Corps also arraigned 87 offenders in mobile court, convicted 79 with option of fines and sentenced one to prison during the 2021 Easter celebration.
Kazeem attributed the decrease in road crashes to the establishment of Station Offices in almost all the 774 local governments in the country, as well a intensified public enlightenment and sensitization campaigns held nationwide in collaboration with key stakeholders in the transportation sector and effective patrol operations, compared to the same period of Easter celebration in 2019.
He said: “The effect of the massive sensitization, enhanced visibility and general enforcement deployed in collaboration with stakeholders is evidenced in the recorded decrease in total number of road traffic crashes and offences recorded in 2021.
“It also implies that drivers have stepped up compliance with established traffic regulations.”
Comparing the two years, Kazeem said in the same period in 2019, the Corps arrested a total of 6,961 offenders in 2019 as against 5,630 in 2021, representing 19.12 per cent decrease, and a total of 7,708 offences as against 6,880 in 2021, representing 10.74 per cent decrease.
Giving the breakdown of the recorded decrease in RTCs during the general operation, the spokesperson noted out of the 103 RTCs in 2019, FRSC recorded 37 fatal crashes as against 26 in 2021, representing 30 per cent decrease in fatal crashes alone.
He added that of the 578 persons involved in road traffic crashes during the 2021 Easter celebration period, compared to 1128 people in 2019, 33 were killed compared to 80 killed in 2019.
On vehicles involved in RTC, Kazeem said that a total of 175 vehicles were involved compared to 218 in 2019.
He gave the breakdown of the vehicles involved in road traffic crashes across the nation as follows: 15 tanker/trailers, 17 trucks, 28 buses, 57 cars, 45 motorcycles, six tricycles, and seven pickups.
Quoting the Corps-Marshal, Dr. Boboye Oyeyemi, Kazeem stated that the Corps now has a wider coverage due to the establishment of more FRSC commands, outposts, road side clinics and zebra points who now feed in reports from different routes that were hitherto not thoroughly covered.
He therefore called on commuters and road users to assist the Corps by reporting any form of obstruction or emergency on the road to the spokesperson through the FRSC Toll Free numbers 122 or tune into the National Traffic Radio 107.1FM to report same or any other contravention seen on the road.
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