Vehicles in Nigeria hit 11.7 million

•16,603 people involved in road accident in three months

LATEST report from the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has estimated the total number of vehicles in the country at about 11.7 million with commercial vehicles holding about 58.08 per cent of the number.

According to the report, out of the 11,653,871 million vehicles, commercial vehicles are 6,768,756, representing about 58.08 per cent; private are 4,739,939 (40.67 per cent); government vehicles followed with 139,264 (1.19 per cent); while Diplomatic vehicles accounted for 5,912 (0.05 per cent).

However, NBS stated that about 2,189 vehicles were involved in road crashes across the country while 661 of them were fatal; 1,232 were serious and 296 were minor crashes. Besides, about 16,603 people were involved in various road crashes out of which 7,848 were injured; 1220 were killed; with total casualty of 9,068.

The breakdown showed that the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) recorded the highest number of road crashes in Nigeria in the first quarter of 2018.

With a total number of 274 crashes and 1,513 persons involved, FCT became the highest followed by Kaduna with 198 crashes involving 1,487 persons while Nasarawa took third with 131 crashes involving 877 persons.

The data showed in the category of vehicles involved in road crashes, which include commercial, private, government and diplomat; commercial vehicles recorded a total of 2,330 crashes, private 1,480, government 52 while diplomats had two totaling 3,864.

For the vehicle number plate production for the quarter in review, Lagos has the highest with 70,639; Ogun with 12,574 while Osun had 10,648.

Out of the production for Lagos, only 48,095 were registered, Ogun 264 while Osun 342. Conversely, Zamfara produced 44 number plates, Ebonyi 42 and FCT 33.

Meanwhile government registered a total of 828 vehicles, while about 143,254 number plates have been produced.

A total of 223,107 national drivers licenses were produced in Q1 2018. Lagos and FCT produced the highest number of drivers’ licenses while Ekiti and Kebbi States produced the least numbers of national drivers’ license.

Also Lagos recorded the highest number of National driver Licence production in the quarter with a total 57,205 representing 25.64 per cent, Ogun 13,187 and Oyo 11,923.

The total number of drivers licence produced across the country was 223,107.

The data reflected that 2,482 road crashes occurred in Q1 2018. Speed violation is reported as the major cause of road crashes in Q1 and it accounted for 50.81 per cent of the total road crashes reported.

Tyre burst and dangerous driving followed closely as they both accounted for 8.26 per cent and 8.42 per cent of the total road crashes recorded.