The Federal Capital Territory has the highest fatality rate in the country from road traffic crashes, according to the Chairman of the Governing Board of the Federal Road Safety Commission, Felix Chukwu.
Chukwu said the FCT recorded a total of 485 cases translating to 33.48 crashes per 10,000 vehicles and 13.86 deaths per 100,000 of the population for the first three quarters of 2013 (January to September).
The FRSC board chairman, who said this during a courtesy call on the FCT minister, Senator Bala Mohammed, in Abuja on Monday, attributed the high accident rate in FCT to the excellent state of its roads, which appear to tempt many motorists to over-speed.
He identified the accident-prone routes as the ever-busy Abuja-Gwagwalada-Yangoji-
Abaji-Lokoja area, Abuja-Nyanya-Keffi area and Abuja-Zuba-Sabon Wuse-Kateri-Kakau-Kaduna area as well as the city centre roads.
He cautioned motorists to always adhere to speed limits.
“The roads leading in and out of FCT are becoming better, hence speed limit violation, loss of control and dangerous driving through our analysis of Road Traffic Crashes data have become the regular causes of RTC,” Chukwu said.
The Chairman expressed the commission’s determination to make FCT and the nation one of the safest 20 nations by the year 2020, adding that the FRSC was intervening to make the roads safer for all through massive deployment of men, patrol vehicles and bikes at regular intervals.