A non governmental organisation, GreenLight Initiative, on Monday trained about 76 Traffic Safety Advocates in Abuja and Kaduna to address issues of economy losses associated to road traffic fatalities in the country.
Mr Simon Obi, Executive Director of the organisation said the training is a train-the-trainers program to empower the capacity of young people in improving safety and advocate for policies of traffic safety the country.
According to him, the number of road traffic deaths from global perspective has increased to 1.35 million annually, saying there was need to reduce the carnage through preventive measures and awareness.
“The comparison shows that the number of people killed on roads globally is more than the population of so many countries of the world.
“This is unacceptable as these deaths are all preventable and avoidable and traffic injuries are now the leading cause of death among young people between the age of 5- 29 years.
“Nigeria, among other low and middle-icome countries have one per cent of the worlds registered vehicles but leading the chart with 13 per cent of all fatalities,” he said.
Obi said road crashes have killed more Nigerians than the violent Boko Haram group, adding that the task of ensuring safety on roads should not be left to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) alone, but through collective efforts.
The executive maintained that when young people have the required skills and knowledge they need, they can undertake real road safety actions in their various communities.
On his part, Mr Olakunle Ade, FRSC instructor also warned motorists to stay clear of intoxicants and other hard drugs while driving to reduce road crashes in the country.
The instructor identified some major causes of road crashes to be reckless driving, bad tyres, over loading and wrong overtaking among others.
However, he called on motorist to adhere strictly to FRSC traffic rules and regulations to reduce road crashes in the country.
Mr Albert Waya, speaking on behalf of other participants, thanked the organisation and FRSC for the training programme and promised to use the knowledge acquired to reduce road crashes in the country. NAN
