By SIMON EBEGBULEM
BENINCITY—THE Edo State chapter of the Nigerian Medical Association, NMA, tuesday, raised alarm over the spate of road accidents across the country, warning that if the situation does not change, the nation may loss 26 per cent of its Gross Domestic Product by 2013.

The state chairman of the NMA, Dr Philip Ugbodaga, stated this, at the opening session of the association’s Annual General Meeting. He said that 162 Nigerians die of every 100,000 involved in road accidents.

Noting that Edo State has the highest accident record in the country, he expressed worries  that the alarming rate of road accident if not checked could make the nation lose its domestic product, which according to him “will negatively affect our manpower and the economy of the nation.”

He urged the Edo State Government to partner with the University of Benin Teaching Hospital,  to explore its paramedic training school for the “retrieval, resuscitation, stabilisation and transfer of injured patients from the site of the injury to a trauma centre.”