Road crashes rise 9.2% in 2025 as FRSC records slight drop in deaths
2026-02-04 - 12:39
By Favour Ulebor, Abuja The Federal Road Safety Corps, FRSC, has said road traffic crashes increased by 9.2 percent in 2025, rising from 9,570 in 2024 to 10,446 in 2025, even as the number of persons killed declined slightly by 2.4 percent. The Corps Marshal of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Shehu Mohammed, disclosed this at a press conference on Wednesday in Abuja, while briefing the public on Operation Zero and the 2025 outing of the Corps. According to him, fatal crashes rose from 2,532 in 2024 to 2,608 in 2025, representing a 3.0 percent increase. He said serious crashes increased by 10.5 percent from 6,131 in 2024 to 6,772 in 2025, while minor crashes rose from 907 to 1,066, representing a 17.5 percent increase. Mohammed said the number of persons injured increased from 31,154 to 33,400, representing a 7.2 percent rise, while the number of people involved increased by 8.0 percent. He, however, said the number of persons killed declined from 5,421 in 2024 to 5,289 in 2025, representing a 2.4 percent reduction, meaning 132 lives were saved compared to 2024. The Corps Marshal said the reduction confirmed that post crash response interventions were working, but fell short of the Corps’ strategic target of a 10 percent fatality reduction. He said: “While this reduction confirms that post crash response interventions are working, it fell short of the Corps’ strategic target of a 10% fatality reduction and confirms that the challenge before us is no longer response alone, but prevention, compliance and deterrence.” On enforcement, Mohammed said offenders arrested increased from 453,304 in 2024 to 581,332 in 2025, representing a 28.3 percent rise. He added that offences booked rose from 496,799 in 2024 to 648,918 in 2025, representing a 30.6 percent increase. On Operation Zero and the 2025 2026 festive operation, he said crash data for the period 15 December 2025 to 15 January 2026 showed an increase across all major indices when compared with the 2024 2025 operation. He said total road traffic crashes rose from 665 in 2024 2025 to 687 in 2025 2026, while fatalities rose from 571 to 597 and injuries increased from 2,462 to 2,522. Mohammed, however, said those rescued without injury rose from 2,697 to 2,792, reflecting improved rescue and emergency response outcomes, but warned that risky road user behaviour continued to undermine safety during peak travel periods. On the 2025 2026 policy direction, Mohammed said all Commands had been directed to shift from routine patrols to intelligence led, risk based enforcement, while enforcing zero tolerance on the “Big Five” offences: speed violation, dangerous driving, drunk or drug impaired driving, wrong way driving, and overloading. He said, “The rising number of crashes is not an act of fate; it is a failure of compliance. Where discipline collapses, enforcement must rise.”