48 people died, 321 injured in Ogun road crashes

Ranmilowo Ojalumo
At least 48 people have lost their lives and another 321 injured in series of road crashes in Ogun state during the yuletide season through the middle of January, 2020; the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) have said.
The numbers have showed that road crashes on the Nigerian roads is still far from dwindling in the state going by the statistics released recently by Ogun State Command of FRSC.
According to the statistics released by the Policy, Research and Statistics Department of the FRSC Ogun State Command, about 102 crashes were recorded in just 36 days in the state and from the 102 crashes, 48 people died while 321 injured.
The data is generated from the command’s operation zero tolerance 2019, which was carried out between December 15, 2019 to January 19, 2020 (36 days). The theme of the operation was “road safety is a state of mind- stay safe”.
The statistics shows that the number of crashes recorded in the state during the period skyrocketed by a whopping 62% compared to 2018 when 63 crashes were recorded. Also, the statistics showed that the number of people that died during the period, which is December 15, 2019 to mid-January, 2020 increased by 60% compared to 2018 when 30 people died during the period; that is between December 1, 2018 – January 15, 2019.
The 36 days operation data also showed that about 585 government vehicles traveled along Lagos-Ibadan, Sagamu-Ore and Lagos Abeokuta road. The statistics also showed that about 726,000 private vehicles and about one million commercial vehicles traveled the same three major roads, which also saw about 17 million passengers traveled along the three corridors.
The statistics also revealed that about 54% of the fatalities recorded during the period were at the construction zones at Ijebu-Ode, Mowe and Ogere.
The command noted that the seeming fairly transport fares by commercial vehicle operators as well as availability of PMS throughout the period among other factors caused high motorization during the period under review.