Seven in every 10 victims of road crashes are youths aged between 15 and 29, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has said.

Mr Oludare Fadogba, its Commanding Officer in charge of Jos Zone, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos on Sunday that Road Traffic Crashes (RTCs) had remained the leading cause of deaths among youths.

The official, whose zone comprised Plateau, Benue and Nasarawa States, said that road crashes has devastating effects on Nigeria’s growth and development potentials.

Fadogba, who urged stakeholders to work harder toward checking the trend, said:

“Road traffic crashes remain a global phenomenon, but they have more devastating effects in the developing countries like ours.

“The lack of infrastructural platforms, legal framework and definite goals needed to address this menace have contributed into worsening the situation on daily basis.”

He regretted that road traffic crashes had become the leading cause of deaths amongst youth at the prime ages of between 15 and 29 years when they were needed for national growth.

“This then means that the prospect of this nation attaining its economic and political potentials is being hampered by a situation where a good number of its productive youths get killed on the roads,” he said.

The commanding officer warned against under-aged driving, driving under influence of alcohol and refusal to obey traffic regulations, pointing out that these had contributed greatly to accidents on highways.

Fadogba advised parents to ensure that their children were qualified to drive before being allowed to do so, adding that more attention must equally be paid to curtailing alcohol intake among young people.

He also charged government at all levels and relevant stakeholders to support FRSC in addressing the challenge of frequent deaths on the highways.

 

Source: NAN

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