By Paschal Madu
…Says untimely deaths mostly come from things we can respond to within the golden hour
The Accident Prevention and Rescue Initiate (APRI), a road safety advocacy group, has called on the 36 States government and the Federal Capital Territory Administration, (FCTA), to as a matter of urgency, establish a functional Emergency Response Centers (ERC).
This is to enhance quick and timely response to road traffic accident victims, especially on the roads under the control of State governments and FCTA
The group also advocated for States to establish the Road Traffic Safety Council (SRTSC), to engage in Road Traffic Safety Policy formulation and delivery, while improving the quality and standard of Road Traffic Safety operatives.
This was contained in a separate press statement signed by APRI Executive Secretary, Amb. Fidelis Nnadi, and made available to journalists in Abuja.
According to him, “untimely deaths in Nigeria mostly come from things we can respond to within the “Golden Hour” — the first 60 minutes. Right now most States don’t have that.
He noted that every State and FCTA should expediently establish a functional ERC to reduce preventable deaths within what he described as the ‘golden hour.’
“Seventy percent of road accidents, fire, and medical emergency deaths happen because help arrives late.
“An ERC with 24/7 dispatch, ambulances, and fire trucks cuts response time from 2 hours to 15 minutes in urban areas. That’s the difference between life and death for accident victims, pregnant women, and cardiac cases,” he stated.
Again, he argued the proposed ERC would assist in the coordination of all responders in one place.
“Right now; FRSC, Police, Fire Service, NEMA, Hospitals, and AVG all respond separately with no communication. An ERC would act as a “One Call, One Command” center. Dial 112/767 and it dispatches Police + Ambulance + Fire + Hospital at once. No more “call this other number”.
On the call to establish SRTSC, Amb. Nnadi observed that ninety per cent of road crashes occur on State and FCT roads within the cities and outskirts without existing and continuous reviews of Road Traffic Safety policies for implementation, hence stagnating road traffic safety efforts.
He pointed out that the Federal Road Safety Corps, (FRSC), cannot cover all the State and FCT roads, “Their efforts should be complimented by the State operatives towards prevention and reduction of road crashes’.
While it is believed that “FRSC mandate covers only the Federal Highways, the responsibility in road crash prevention must be everybody’s responsibility. However, in many States, most crashes occurring on Federal, State and LGA roads, school zones, and State intra-city roads deserve to be monitored by road traffic safety operatives to ensure prompt response to road crashes when they occur.
“A Road Traffic Safety Council will provide policy guidelines for the States, particularly the State Ministry of Transport in the making of new bills and review of existing Road Traffic Safety regulations for the State legislature for implementation by the operatives.
According to Nnadi, the State Road Traffic Safety Council would entrench data-driven crash prevention and improvement in the administration of Road Traffic Safety efforts in the States.
“The current situation where States don’t have capacity to track locations of ‘where crashes occurred with a view to responding timely in the rescue of victims does not encourage road travels but exposes the laxity of the State to protect lives and property of road users.
“A State Road Traffic Safety Council will encourage the establishment of State Crash Data Bank that would collate data from FRSC, Police, VIOs, Hospitals, and other precautionary measures for effective road traffic safety policies”, he said.
Furthermore, Amb. Nnadi made it clear that ERC would also facilitate the reduction of traffic and road crime fatalities.
“States like Lagos, Anambra, Delta have high road crashes and ‘one chance robbers,’ and kidnappings. ERCs with GPS-tracked ambulances, rescue vehicles, and CCTV integration can reach accident scenes faster and deter road extortion by law enforcement agencies”.