The House of Representatives has called for the urgent provision of emergency Clinics along Federal Highways across the Nigeria.
The House also mandated the Committee on Federal Road Safety Commission to ensure compliance.
While urging that the Federal Road Safety Commission to liaise with the Federal Ministry of works and Housing, and States Emergency Management Authorities to ensure that accident victims receive quick medical attention.
The House resolutions were passed sequel to the adoption of a motion moved by Hon. Mallam Bukar Gana, (APC, Borno).
Gana noted that Road traffic accidents have become a global public health concern but not enough attention is given to it in terms of public health enlightenment and strategic policies by the government to achieve sustainable control.
He also noted that some accidents are inevitable, and a lot can be done to minimize fatalities through the
establishment of functional road traffic clinics across the States of the federation.
He stated that the Federal Government is constitutionally bound to protect lives and properties of its citizens by providing security and essential amenities amongst others, and Section 10(3)(q) of the Federal Road Safety
Commission Act empowers the Federal Road Safety Commission to provide roadside and mobile clinics for the free treatment of road accident victims within the nation.
“The Federal Road Safety Commission was established to, amongst other things, rescue road accident victims from the crash site, administer first aid treatment, and operate road accident clinics to treat minor accident cases and stabilize critical victims before transferring them to the nearest hospitals.
The Lawmaker cited a statistic of the clinics that are functioning and the one that are not, he said “there are only forty-seven traffic accident clinics across Nigeria, fifteen of which are furnished but non-functional, fourteen (14) are not furnished and non-functional, while only 18 are furnished and functional.
“According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), 11,363 accidents were recorded in 2016 with a total number of 30,105 injured victims out of which 28,250 were adults, 1,855 were children, while 5,053 people lost their lives.
“We are worried that the deplorable state of major highways and reckless driving occasioned by over speeding,
drunkenness, and total disregard of traffic rules by commuters have contributed to incessant road accidents, and the country require functional clinics to prevent needless deaths.
“The available roadside clinics are grossly insufficient to cater for the medical needs of commuters as the functional ones are poorly managed, and commuters will continue to die needlessly for lack of immediate medical attention,” he added.
