South West: Road accidents claim 395 people in Q4, says NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has disclosed that road accidents claim 395 people in the fourth quarter (Q4) of 2021 in the South West.

The report stated that 2,000 people were injured through road accidents with total cases of 876 in the quarter under review.

According to the bureau, the total number of people killed in road traffic crashes in the period under review was 1,652 and number of injured at 10,171.

The report added that the total casualties involved in road traffic crashes was 11,823.

According to the report, “In Q3 2021, total road traffic crashes were 3,134, showing a decrease of 1.60 per cent from Q2 2021, which recorded 3,185. This rose by 8.71 per cent in Q4 2021 when 3,407 cases were recorded.

“Disaggregating crashes into categories shows that serious cases of road crashes in Q3 2021 were higher with 2,008 compared to fatal and minor cases with 723 and 403 respectively. Similarly, serious cases stood at 2,199 in Q4 2021 compared to fatal with 888 and minor with 320.

“In terms of sex distribution of persons killed in road traffic crashes, 1,136 males were killed in Q3 2021, accounting for 79.33 per cent of 1,432 persons killed in total.

“This rose to 1,343 in Q4 2021, representing 81.30 per cent of 1,652 persons killed. Also, there were more males injured compared to females in Q3 2021 recording 78.51 per cent. The trend continued in Q4 2021 with males accounting for 76.01 per cent of injuries.

“The number of vehicles involved in road traffic crashes were 4,946 in Q3 2021 compared to Q2 2021 which recorded 5,134.

“This indicates a decline of 3.66 per cent in Q3 2021. Similarly, 5,323 vehicles were involved in crashes in Q4 2021, indicating a 7.62 per cent growth from the preceding quarter. In Q3 and Q4 2021, commercial vehicles were mostly affected in road crashes compared to private, government and diplomatic vehicles.

“On a zonal basis, the North-Central recorded the highest number of crashes in Q3 2021 with 1,041, fol-lowed by the South-West region with 822.

“In terms of casualties, the North-Central recorded the highest which stood at 2,963, followed by the South-South region with 2,237.

“Similarly, the North-Central recorded the highest cases of road crashes in Q4 2021 with 1095, followed by the South-West region with 876. In ad-dition, the North-Central recorded the highest casualties in Q4 2021 with 3,663, followed by the South-West region with 2,395.”