The Corps Marshall and chief executive, Federal Road Safety Corps, Osita Chidoka has said that zero death road traffic crash result is achievable in Nigeria if the right steps are taken.

Chidoka who made this remark in Abeokuta at the launch of the United Nations Decade of action by the Ogun State government and launching of ambulances for emergency services in Ogun State said he had no doubt that the step taken by the Ogun State government was strategic towards making Nigerian roads one of the safest within the global safest roads in line with  vision 20:2020.

He remarked that the decision of the Ogun State government to launch the United Nations Decade of Action on Roads Safety stands them out among other states.

“If by this step, the Ogun State government succeeds, then by the end of 2020, the current number of people that perished in the state would be reduced by 50 per cent as demanded by the United Nations.” Continuing he said this was still not the ultimate aim of Nigeria as national road safety strategic document has been developed for Nigeria where the nation envisioned a country where road traffic crashes would result in zero death. “This vision as challenging as it may look is achievable.”

The FRSC boss disclosed that the United Nations General Assembly worried by the alarming rate of deaths caused by road traffic crashes estimated at 1.3 million annually across the globe unanimously passed a significant resolution on March 2, 2010, declaring 2011-2020 to be the decade of Action road safety.

The decade of Action is designed as an exceptional framework in which all stakeholders, government agencies, non governmental organisation, educational institutions, the press, political leaders, religious leaders, civil societies and others can work together through concerted efforts at eliminating the scourge of road traffic crashes, thereby improving road safety both locally and  globally.

According to him, the UN had warned that if action was not taken, by 2015, road traffic crashes will be the leading health burden for children over the age of five in developing countries.

The annual death rates is also forecast to rise to 1.9 million by 2020. He noted that before, road safety had been met with muted action resulting to huge loss of lives and material resources in the country.

To this end, he said, “we as a nation and a part of the international community, cannot and will not fold our hands to see these lives being wasted through road traffic crashes, which in most cases are caused by human error. It has become a necessity to use initiatives and every device within our reach to take action. And this is the time.”