Prof. Olayinka Adegbehingbe, the Professor of Orthopedic Surgery and Traumatology, Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospital Complex (OAUTHC), Ile-Ife, released the rating on Tuesday.
Adegbehingbe made the revelation in his 331st Inaugural Lecture of the Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU), titled: “That I May Live And Walk: Feasibility of the Impossibility” on Tuesday.
“Nigeria is among countries with the highest rate of road accidents in the world, with 5,400 deaths in 12,077 road crashes in 2015.
”The 2015 WHO report revealed that one in every four deaths from road crashes in Africa occurred in Nigeria, thus a higher death toll than malaria.
“About 135 persons are killed and between 2000 and 6000 persons are injured or disabled every hour worldwide,’’ he said.
He said that many of these deaths and injuries occurred in low to middle-income countries and to vulnerable road users.
In Nigeria, the Minister of Health, Prof. Isaac Adewole in July 2017 raised the alarm about the high rate of road accidents in the country.
According to him, the possibilities of living and able to work depend largely on non-involvement in major road traffic accident.
He attributed majority of road crashes in Nigeria to admixture of traffic, human, animals and inanimate obstacles and motorcyclists road behaviours.
He appealed to government to make provision for alternative means of mass transit such as: rails, buses, which will eliminate most of the need for commercial motorcycles.