Boniface Ihiasota
Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has issued a warning to hospitals in Nigeria against rejecting accident victims. This warning was given by the FRSC zonal commanding officer for Zone RS10 Kayode Olagunju, whose zone comprises of Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states. Failure to adhere to this new directive will attract a fine of N50,000 and or six months imprisonment.
According to Olagunju: “It is illegal for any hospital to reject accident victims.” He also said that, majority of accident victims are prone to give up within one hour of the crashes known as the golden hour.
“All hands must be on deck to ensure that the victims are well managed within the golden hour. “In line with the global best practices, the country operates a 30-day rule which means a Road Traffic Crash victim should be monitored for at least 30 days and whoever dies within 30 days after the crash, is recorded to have died through RTC involved in.” He enjoined agencies involved in road traffic crash management to ensure proper documentation of every road crash which will include details of vehicles, persons involved as well as casualty statuses.
The agencies which include the FRSC, the police, hospital managements, Vehicle Inspection Officers (VIO), state agencies on traffic and the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), were advised to collaborate in creating credible road traffic crash database in the zone.
