From Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
In the last five months, no fewer than 35 persons have died and 176 injured in road accidents in Anambra State.
The casualty figure was from 85 road auto crashes recorded in the state between January and May, 2016.
Disclosing this yesterday, in Awka, the Anambra State Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr. Sunday Ajayi, said 26 out of the 85 accidents were fatal.
He said: “Within January and May 2016, we have recorded 85 road crashes in Anambra State, out of which 26 were fatal; 35 people were killed, and 176 persons were injured.
“This report may not be comprehensive, because there maybe others that had happened without our knowledge and therefore not recorded.”
The Sector Commander noted that the record was a reasonable reduction from the record of crashes in 2015, adding that the Command was working hard to reduce auto crash rates in the state.
According to Ajay, most of the road crashes on Nigerian roads were caused by over-speeding, stressing that the use of speed limiters as proposed by the corps, if adopted would help to reduce crashes.
He further said: “Over-speeding accounts for 60 per cent of road crashes in Nigeria, but with the speed limiters, the incident will be reasonably reduced. Accidents kill more these days than armed robbery.”
Ajay however, solicited the support of the media to sensitise the people on the need to abide by highway codes and other road safety measures.