28th December, 2017
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
Road accidents have claimed 166 lives in Ogun State in the last 11 months, says the Ogun State Sector Commander, Clement Oladele.
Oladele disclosed this on Thursday at the 12th Annual Road Safety/Walk/Road Show of Temidayo Ogan Child Safety and Support (TOCSS) Foundation, held in partnership with the Federal Road Safety Corp, FRSC, Ogun State Command along the border communities of Ogun and Lagos States.
Oladele said the figure represented a reduction from what was recorded last year in Ogun State in which 270 people died, adding that the goal of the command was to ensure 8.2 death per every 100,000 and to further reduce it to the barest minimum, saying that advocacy was key to doing this.
On the theme of the safety walk, which is “Safer Mental Health, Safer Roads,” Oladele said it was in line with the United Nations Decade of Action Plan to halt road fatalities as well as in line with the FRSC vision.
He said the mental state of individuals would to a large extent determine safety on the road, saying that drivers taking alcohol before driving, people with unstable mental health conditions or family challenge or having lost a job should desist from driving as such people could contribute to crashes on roads.
Executive Director, TOCSS Foundation, Mrs Temidayo Ogan said many road traffic accidents and deaths in Nigeria were recently analysed and that the analysis results indicated the mental health status pattern.
“So, it is in response to the hidden road traffic and high risk factor that the foundation launched the ‘Safer Mental Health, Safer Roads’ campaign, adding that every road user required 100 percent mental health or concentration level to avoid road traffic incidents and crashes while using the roads.
“So, we all, including the governments are responsible for the support that is required for persons living with common or uncommon mental health conditions; because a road user action always goes around to impact and adversely affect other road users,” he said.
She lamented that road traffic injuries were rapidly becoming one of the major causes of death and disability, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, with no exemption to Nigeria, adding that recent researches had linked mental health to road safety, stating that impact of poor mental health on road safety had further increased its already huge burden of public health.
A Consultant in Neuro Psychiatrist Hospital, Ogun State, Dr. Sunday Amosu said before anyone could drive on the road, he or she needed to be at peace with himself and with others, adding that he or she must be in the best mental state possible in order to avert road crashes and fatalities.