The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has recorded 2,650 crashes, 1,593 deaths, and 9,298 injuries between January and March 2025, bringing the effectiveness of the government’s agency under scrutiny.
The agency’s statistics represents an 8.3 per cent increase in fatalities and a 7.4 per cent rise in injuries compared to the same period in 2024.
The Jos-Lafia-Makurdi corridor is one of the deadliest routes, with 1,539 lives lost in just three months. Other tragic incidents include a trailer-truck collision in Ilorin, Kwara State, that claimed 18 lives, and a bus crash on the Ore-Lagos Road, Ondo State, that killed 30 people.
Human error, poor road infrastructure, and overloading have been figured as major causes of accidents. The FRSC has attributed some crashes to wrong-way driving, reckless overtaking, and speeding.
However, safety advocates warn of a potential surge in fatalities during the rainy season and urge urgent action to address the crisis.
They pointed to the need for the FRSC to enhance its effort in ensuring safety on the road, insisting that a lot still needs to be done in maintaining safety on the nation’s roads
Recent accidents include:
A trailer and Toyota Hilux crash on Ife-Ilesa Road, Osun State, killed five people, including a child on April 19, 2025.
A bus tyre burst on the Abuja-Lokoja Highway, killing one person and injuring six others on May 5, 2025.
A bus plunged off a bridge on the Kano-Zaria Expressway, killing 22 athletes on June 1, 2025.
A head-on collision between two Golf cars in Jigawa State resulted in nine deaths June 7, 2025.
Five people died and several others were injured in an accident on Lagos-Ibadan Expressway (Soka area) involving trucks, cars and taxis.
In July, within just 48 hours between July 5 and 6, a total of 39 lives were lost in three separate crashes in Kano, Lagos and Ogun states.
On Zaria Kano highway, 21 people were killed when a Toyota Hummer bus driving against traffic collided head-on with a trailer.
In Ogun State, 10 lives were lost on the Ijebu Ode-Obada Expressway due to wrong overtaking
In Lagos, eight people died in a crash on the Mile 2–Badagry Expressway, caused by over speeding.
All three crashes were linked to human error: wrong-way driving, reckless overtaking, and speeding.
These repeated patterns are some of the issues the FRSC was set up to address.
Before now, there were daily patrols on the highways by the FRSC officials (road marshals), motorists over speeding or suspected to likely cause accidents would be flagged down, delayed or stopped outright especially if found to be drunk.
Poor road infrastructure and insecurity are other causes of accidents on the highways.
Mr Patrick Adenusi, technical director, Safety Beyond Borders, a road safety non governmental organisation, in a telephone chat on Wednesday, identified the major causes of accidents to include overloading by tanker drivers, use of alcohol and other dangerous drugs, and non-adherence to stipulated loading standard by oil marketing companies.
According to him, the poor condition of the highways, coupled with lack of road signages and fatigue suffered by drivers as a result of long driving time are also responsible for most of the accidents.
Many highways remain in a state of disrepair, forcing drivers into dangerous detours or risky maneuvers to make up for lost time caused by potholes or bandit-infested routes.
As Nigerians await the FRSC to release the second quarter statistics on road crashes by late July or early August, safety advocates are already warning of a potential surge in fatalities, especially during the rainy season when roads deteriorate further and visibility worsens.
Experts lamented the palliative measures applied in addressing these crashes, thus they called for stricter enforcement of traffic regulations; community-level awareness campaigns on safe driving; immediate repair of damaged roads; mandatory refresher training for commercial drivers, among other measures.