184 killed, 894 injured in 269 auto crashes in Bauchi
By; Mohammed Kawu, Bauchi.
A total number of 184 persons lost their lives while 894 others sustained various degrees of injuries in 269 road crashes between January and December preceding year in Bauchi State.
Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) statistics made available to New Nigerian indicated that road traffic crashes for 2015 in Bauchi State claimed 132 males, 34 females and 18 children.
According to the casualty report, a total of 1,950 people were involved in 86 fatal, 168 serious and 15 minor accidents that occurred across the 20 Local Government Areas of Bauchi State in 2015.
According to the FRSC 2015 report, 431 vehicles including 156 private, 204 commercial, and 4 government vehicles were involved in the accidents.
The report indicated that Darazo Unit Command of the FRSC, recorded the highest number of road crashes of 72 with 23 deaths and 231 injured while the Sector Headquarters had 58 different crashes but with the highest deaths of 67 and 205 injured.
It further showed that Bara Unit Command had 50 road crashes, 31 deaths and 117 injured while Azare Unit Command recorded 32 cases, 43 deaths and 156 injured.
Also, Toro Unit Command had 29 road crashes, 6 deaths, 63 injured and Alkaleri Unit Command had the least recorded crashes of 28 with 13 deaths and 122 injured.
Sector Commander of the FRSC in Bauchi State, Ibrahim Abubakar said that the state recorded a reduction in the number of road crashes in the state in 2015 as a result of the massive enlightenment of motorists and enforcement of traffic rules carried out by the force during the period.
Abubakar also disclosed that there were only 5 crashes throughout the state in December with one being fatal which resulted in the deaths of 7 people despite the volume of vehicular and human movement in the month.
He however said that over 150 motorists were tried in the mobile courts set up by the FRSC for different road traffic offences and were fined accordingly.
“With the massive public enlightenment and the setting up of mobile courts across the state in 2015, we were able to reduce the rate of accidents on our highway in the state. We set up 3 mobile courts on Bauchi-Jos road, Bauchi-Kano road and Bauchi-Maiduguri road”, he stated.
“I commend the various transport unions and the drivers, they listened to us and adhered to the traffic rules and that was why we didn’t have any major problem with the motorists last year except few minor cases”.
The Sector Commander however said that his headaches have been the motorcyclists in town, as, according to him, both the private and commercial motorcyclists have penchant for road violation of driving against traffic.
“But massive enforcement and prosecution of these motorcyclists was the reason why we didn’t have a major crash as a result of these form of violation of traffic rule in the last quarter of 2015, but there were injuries”.
He said that the Bauchi Command would soon embark on enforcement on violators of number plates, licensing of vehicles and drivers’ license.
