Auto Crashes Claim 21 Lives, Injure 144 Persons in Anambra – FRSC

By Praise Chinecherem

Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in Anambra state on Monday said 21 persons lost their lives while 144 were injured between January and October in the state.

Sector Commander, Bridget Asekhauno gave the statistics during a press conference flagging off the 2025 ember months public enlightenment campaign, themed, “Take Responsibility for Your Safety: Stop Distracted Driving.”

She said the number of casualties were recorded in 57 crashes, attributing most of them to over speeding.

The FRSC boss highlighted part of activities lined up for the ember months campaign.

According to her, it include motorcade rally and town hall meeting to sensitize road users and stakeholders on need to take their safety more seriously.

“We’ll be having motorcade rally across the state, especially parks to sensitize road users, including drivers to ensure they take responsibility for their safety by avoiding distractive driving.

“We’re also be having a town hall meeting where we’re going to invite drivers, road users and other traffic agencies to ensure we’re on the same page.

“On our officers, we’ll keep training and retraining during in-house training. We brief our men every morning to ensure they’re at the utmost best.

“If you see any of them who misbehaves doesn’t mean they lack training. You’ll always have deviants in any organization.

Delivering address of Corps Marshal Shehu Mohammed, the Sector Commander quoted him as saying the choice of the 2025 End-of-Year campaign theme was to address road traffic infringements by drivers largely responsible for previous road crash records.

“The 2024 Operation Zero (15 December, 2024 – 15 January 2025) crash statistics reveal that 432 persons were killed; 2,070 persons were injured out of 533 reported cases of road crashes.

“The records also showed that the major causes of those crashes were driver fatigue, and overloading of persons,

“Conveyance of persons in haulage vehicles and traveling with fuel in plastic containers.

“Apparently, driver behaviour is a fundamental element in determining safety on our highways.

“The theme reinforces the view that human factor is one of the major causes of road crashes. It also draws attention to the fact that drivers are largely responsible for crashes on our highways.

“As we are all aware, the ember months is a season marked by increased travel, higher traffic volume and attendant rise in road crash injuries and fatalities,” the Corp Marshall said.

Appreciating the media for its unwavering commitment to advancing road safety enlightenment, Mohammed assured it as continued collaboration as critical platform for sensitization.

“Your platforms have consistently amplified our voices as crucial stakeholders thus improving road safety awareness in Nigeria,” he added.