The World Heath Organization (WHO) has expressed willingness to collaborate with the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) to provide generally acceptable credible road crash data for Nigeria.
Nigeria’s WHO representative, Dr. Rui Gama Vuz, made the revelation, when the FRSC Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi paid a visit to his office, as part of his sensitization programmes to streamline issue of authentic data on road traffic crashes in the country.
Dr. Vuz expressed WHO’s commitment to working with FRSC towards addressing the challenge of authentic data on road traffic crashes in Nigeria. According to him, the challenges of road traffic crashes have become a major health issue that requires attention of both government and non-government organizations.
He emphasized the need for a credible data on road traffic crashes in the country, declaring WHO’s readiness to support FRSC’s efforts towards ensuring a credible data on road crashes.
Dr. Vuz praised FRSC for its efforts at managing road traffic crashes in the country, but frowned at hat he described as high level of disobedience with impunity to traffic rules by drivers, urging FRSC to sustain its effort on public enlightenment programmes and enforcement to make the drivers comply with traffic rules.
In his earlier presentation earlier, Oyeyemi gave details of the Corps operational activities over the years and its efforts to have a unified and credible database on road traffic crashes for the country through collaboration with other stakeholders. According to him, the effort has yielded positive results with the inauguration of the National Committee on Road Crash Information System.
The Corps Marshal, who was accompanied by some principal officers, also enumerated the challenges FRSC faces in managing the effects of road traffic crashes, provision of first aid treatment to crash victims and the effect of their enforcement and public enlightenment, which has reduced the rate of road traffic crashes in the country.
He solicited for the support of WHO in the areas of capacity building, rescue equipment and medicaments for its facilities across the country.