The Edo Sector Commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Cyril Mathew, has disclosed that about 63 percent of road traffic deaths in country involved passengers.
The Sector Commander disclosed this in Benin during the ember months sensitization town hall meeting with the theme “speak up against dangerous driving, crashes kills more passengers than drivers”
He said excessive speeding, driving without obey traffic light, driving under the influence of alcohol, drugs and any substance, distracting driving such making calls, smoking, eating while driving among others constitute dangerous driving on the road.
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“According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Nigeria records thousands of road traffic deaths annually with significant number being passengers travelling in commerical vehicle.
“The NBS statistic also said, approximately 63 percent of all road traffic death involved passengers,” he said.
He noted that most of the accident were result from the negligence of the drivers who engaged in risking behaviours on the road thereby putting their passengers at significant risk.
Mathew explained, “In a study conducted by the FRSC, revealed that the road traffic crashes involving commercial drivers, the chances of passengers sustaining serious injuries or fatalities are considerably higher than that of the drivers”
“This is often due to the design of the vehicle which tend to offer more protection to the driver due safety feature such as airbag among others. In contrast passenger in poorly constructed vehicles lacked such safety features”.
According to him, passengers were not able to influence the decision making of the drivers thereby leaving the passengers vulnerable to the consequences of their dangerous driving action of drivers.
“Today we will let you, you must not keep quiet but speak out to save your lives because passengers suffers more when accident occurred a vehicle with many passengers is being driven by one driver,” he said.
He however called on the drivers to obey traffic rules and regulations as to convey their to their destinations safely
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