FRSC Pledges To Tackle Heavy Traffic

The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has said that it is not overwhelmed by the heavy traffic being experienced in some major road corridors across the country. 

Mr Charles Akpabio, the Corps Public Education Officer, gave the clarification in an interview with newsmen in Abuja, while commenting on the traffic situation on the Lokoja-Abuja road.

Akpabio said the commission’s personnel deployed to monitor and tackle traffic challenges during the Christmas and New Year holidays were still on ground, adding that they were on top of the situation.

 He urged motorists and road users to be safety conscious so that they could arrive safely in their various destinations.

It will be  recalled that there was a heavy traffic on the Lokoja-Abuja road on Monday as people returned to the FCT to resume work after the New Year celebration.

As a result, it took many motorists about six hours to get to Abuja from Lokoja, a journey of less than two hours in normal times.

Akpabio attributed the accidents and chaotic situation being experienced on the road to human factors.

Such factors, he said, included indiscipline, failure of motorists and road users to keep to the required speed limit, overloading, drunken driving and phoning while driving, among others.

Akpabio said that what were termed road accidents were not accidents but road crashes, explaining that while the former was an un-planned occurrence, the later was caused by human acts that could be avoided.

“Accident is un-planned; you do not expect it and it occurs. But a road crash is avoidable because you can control your behaviour while driving.

“But if you fail to control yourself, you may be involved in a crash. It is a crash because it is a deliberate act,’’ he said.

Akpabio said that at the end of the monitoring exercise, the list of those arrested and prosecuted for various traffic offences during the period, including those who abused the use of siren, would be published.