Road crashes cause deaths of young people in Nigeria, other countries - PRI

THE Road Safety International (La Prévention Routière Internationale) (PRI) has said that about 85 per cent of deaths of young people recorded annually in Nigeria as well as other developing countries are caused by road traffic accidents.PRI President, Mr Joop Goos, who disclosed this in Abuja in a presentation at the International Road Safety Forum, added that about 3,500 deaths were recorded worldwide a day or 150 an hour.Nearly three people get killed on the roads every minute.He expressed sadness that developing countries bear the most brunt of these road calamities but warned that the World Health Organisation (WHO) had predicted that the number of road traffic fatalities in low and middle income countries would rise with 83 per cent over the period of 2000 to 2020.Worldwide, there are 1.3 million road deaths every year, and more than 50 million people are seriously injured Goos said.He called on developing countries around the world to take steps to bring down the number of road crashes through investment in road safety, saying road safety must be number one priority of any government.Corps Marshal and Chief Executive of the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Mr Osita Chidoka, had in his welcome address said the forum with a theme: Traffic Safety in a Developing Economy, was intended to raise awareness of negative impacts of road traffic fatalities in Nigeria and other African countries for a concerted effort to reduce the road carnage.The PRI President, Mr Goos further urged the government of Nigeria to be committed to the attainment of United Nation declaration of Decade of Action, which emphasised on 50 per cent reduction of road traffic accidents between 2011 and 2020.He said: In many countries the field of road safety has to face budget cuts. Therefore it is a strong political signal that the United Nations declared 2011-2020 as the Decade of Action for Road Safety.Achieving the target of 50 per cent of traffic deaths by the year 2020, means five million road traffic victims and 50 million non-fatal injuries would be avoided, which also means a saving of three trillion USD.This shows that especially in times of economic recession cost for road safety work should be seen as investments, which will be earned back later; investments which will bring down the number of road traffic victims and the yearly societal cost of traffic crashes, he said.
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