FRSC: UN’s Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 to reduce deaths, injuries by 50 percent

*Nigeria’s Federal Road Safety Corps also laments the regulatory agency has recorded over 40,000 deaths annually, due to road traffic crashes in the West African country

Alexander Davis | ConsumerConnect

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has revealed the regulatory agency recorded over 40,000 deaths annually, due to road traffic crashes in Nigeria.

ConsumerConnect learnt Mr. Dauda Biu, Corps Marshal FRSC, noted this in Abuja, FCT, during the activities marking the 7th United Nations Global Road Safety Week in the country.

The Corps Marshal of FRSC said that the facts were the ‘unholy statistics’ of Road Traffic Crashes and injuries constituting a leading cause of deaths and disabilities in Nigeria.

According to him, 1.3 million people were killed and as many as 50 million people gets injured each year globally.

He as well affirmed that the United Nations had developed a global plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030 to save more lives in road transportation.

Biu said the global body’s safety roadmap reflected an ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries by 50 percent by 2030.

There is no greater threat to people, aged 5-29 years than Road Traffic Crashes, as one in every four deaths occurs among pedestrians and cyclists, the FRSC Corps Marshal stated.

He declared: “In Nigeria, over 40,000 persons die annually as a result of this avoidable scourge.”

The FRSC boss said that the United Nations had developed global plan for the Decade of Action for Road Safety 2021-2030.

He said that it reflected an ambitious target to reduce road traffic deaths and injuries, which would be by 50 percent by 2030.

Biu said that the 2023 edition of the event with theme, ‘’Sustainable Transport‘’, is slated for Monday to Sunday.

“FRSC is partnering with the World Health Organisation (WHO), Federal Ministry of Health (FMH) and United Nations Decade of Action on Road Safety and Injury Prevention (UNDARSIP) to mark the event with various activities,” said the Corps Marshal.

Measures to ensure safety  and emergency care

Biu further stressed the need to take action to ensure safe roads, vehicles and behaviours as well as to improve emergency care is paramount.

He also: “The 7th UN Global Road Safety Week is focusing on sustainable transport with the slogan #RethinkMobility, which necessitates the urgent need to shift to walking, cycling and using public transport.

“The key messages of this year’s event centers on the need for governments and their partners to rethink mobility.

“Ensuring safety must be at the core of efforts to re-imagine mobility and thus road networks must be designed with the most-at-risk in mind.”

Government, partners and stakeholders to rethink mobility

The FRSC Corps Marshal, however, called on government at all levels and partners to rethink mobility with a mindset to providing access to safe and affordable mobility systems for all.

Biu stressed the need for government to make available accessible, resilient, low and sustainable mobility systems to create livable cities that would fulfil the mobility needs of all.

This measure, he stated, is to ensure safety at all costs.

The road network must be designed in consideration of the vulnerable road users who were the most at risk in mind, said he.

Biu said this would ensure that they feel safe walking and cycling towards promoting good health, sustainable cities and equitable society.

Meanwhile, Prof. Sydney Ibeanusi, Focal Person/Country Representative, UN Decade of Action for road safety, said that government would continue to put the issue of road safety on the front burner.

Ibeanusi, who said that Nigeria had a better system, saying “what we want to show the world was that the system actually exists.

“Nigeria has been chosen as a country to improve cycling, and Abuja has been chosen as one of the five states globally.

”This is for a project implementation to encourage cycling and we will not relent in our efforts.”

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