No fewer than 234 persons
were killed in road accidents in Oyo State last year while 1,307 others
suffered varying degrees of injury.
Statistics made available on
Wednesday in Ibadan by the Oyo State Sector Command showed that the number of
deaths increased by 113 as against the 121 recorded in 2011.
The Sector Commander, Mr
Godwin Ogagaoghene, said that the command recorded 320 road accidents in 2012
as against 341 in 2011.
According to him, 130 cases
were fatal, 89 cases were serious while 101 were minor.
Ogagagoghene attributed the
multiple road accidents to human, mechanical and environmental factors,
pointing out that human factor constituted 90 per cent of the road accidents in
2012.
He said there were more
crashes involving buses and articulated vehicles than cars, adding that this
contributed to the high casualty figures recorded for the year.
``Naturally, buses have the
capacity to carry more passengers than cars, which is why it is expected that
crashes involving such vehicles would involve more casualties.
``However, you will notice
that the total number of crashes, when compared to the previous year, had
reduced based on the strategy we deployed last year.
``We were always on ground to calm traffic and
our rescue team and ambulances were effective in the immediate response to
calls of distress,’’ Ogagaoghene said.
The FRSC boss expressed
optimism that the number of road crashes would further reduce in 2013 as the
commission had put in place necessary measures.
