The Accident Prevention and Rescue Initiative (APRI) has called on the Federal, State, and local governments, including the private sector, to step up actions in the promotion of welfare programmes for road crash victims in the country.
The call was made in a statement signed by Amb. Fidelis Nnadi and made available to newsmen in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
Amb. Nnadi decried the situation where road crash victims are denied medical attention at both public and private hospitals due to financial constraints of the victims and family members.
The statement read in part; the rate of road crashes resulting in high casualties of deaths and injuries have left victims with no alternative than to give up their lives, while the injured are abandoned without care and hope for survival, Nnadi lamented.
Lamenting further, Nnadi disclosed that there are hundreds of hospitalized victims in many hospitals across Nigeria, but their hope of survival is very slim as there is nothing tangible to give them assurance of survival.
“Government at all levels as well as corporate bodies should strengthen the capacity of insurance companies towards compensating road crash victims with a view to care for their welfare
He disclosed that Nigeria’s current road crash index, as revealed by Nigeria Bureau of Statistics, shows that over 6,000 lives are lost annually, while thousands are fatally disabled.
Amb. Nnadi who is also the media Director and member of Coalition of Road Safety NGOs in Nigeria (CORSAN) and National Consultant for Nigeria VIOs on Capacity Building and Public Affairs Advocacy, urged the public and private institutions including individuals to be humane enough by extending hospitality and welfare to Road Crash victims, stressing that most of the victims were killed while striving to earn a living in order to sustain their families and themselves.
We have observed that the Federal Road Safety Corps is saddled with the responsibility to establish emergency response highway clinics but this responsibility seem to have been abandoned, the group is therefore urging the FRSC to revive their responsibility in this direction for the interest of road crash victims on Nigeria Roads, Nnadi concluded.
