Whereas the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed Nigeria’s population to be now at 193,392,517, the agency also disclosed that there are about 11,547,236 vehicles of various types across the federation.
According to analysts who barred their minds with our correspondent, the figure on vehicles shows that Nigeria has overtaken all other African nations and parts of Europe on the number of vehicles on the road on a daily basis.
In a report titled “Road Transport Data (Q3 2017)”, the NBS data also indicated that excessive speed was the leading cause of injuries for 6, 803 victims involved in 2, 478 road accidents during the third quarter of 2017 alone.
The NBS report noted that about 72.0% of road accident victims are men while women constitute 22.4% as male and female children account for 3.2% and 2.5% respectively.
NBS averred that “Speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes in Q3 and it accounted for 44.51% of the total road crashes reported.
“Loss of control and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 10.41% and 9.52% of the total road crashes recorded.
“A total of 6,803 Nigerians got injured in the road traffic crashes recorded.
“6,419 of the 6,803 Nigerians that got injured, representing 94.4% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 384 Nigerians, representing 5.7% of the figure are children; 5,110 male Nigerians, representing 75%, got injured in road crashes in Q3 while 1,693 female Nigerians, representing 25% got injured.
The new report also revealed that “A total of 1,070 Nigerians got killed in the road traffic crashes recorded in Q3.
“981 of the 1,070 Nigerians that got killed, representing 91.7% of the figure, are adults while the remaining 89 Nigerians, representing 8.3% of the figure are children. 815 male Nigerians, representing 76.2%, got killed in road crashes in Q3 while 255 female Nigerians, representing 23.8% got killed,” it stated.
The NBS report further gave details of leading category of vehicles involved in road crashes, states with the highest and lowest frequencies of road accidents along with states with the highest numbers of drivers’ licence and number plates.
“Data on the category of vehicles involved in road crashes in Q3 2017 reflected that 58% of vehicles are commercial (2,000), 40.6% are private (1,401), 1.4% are government (48) and the remaining are diplomat (0).
“FCT recorded the highest number of road crashes in Q3 2017 and closely followed by Kaduna and Kogi States while Borno and Bayelsa States recorded the least.
“A total of 200,565 national drivers licenses were produced in Q3 2017; Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses while Zamfara and Kebbi States produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license.
