Proprietor Urges Drivers To Respect Traffic Rules

The proprietor of Legun Driving School, Mr Lewechi Ogunka, has identified the inability of some drivers  to read and understand the road traffic signs and regulations as a major  challenge facing road traffic management in the state.

Ogunka, who made the remark on Monday  in his office in Port Harcourt, during an interview with The Tide, attributed the inability of some drivers to read and understand the road signs to lack of orientation and training.

According to him, driving is not all about controlling the steering wheel and changing of gears, it  requires  education concerning what  the roads are, types of roads one is  plying on, what is one lane, double  lane, parking lane, speed lane etc.

Part of the education, he continued include, how to inteprete  road signs representing U-turn, junction, T-junctions, One way, Zebra  Crossing, Round about, train-crossing, road corner, among others.

He maintained that the problem is hinged  on lack of formal driving school training, saying  that apart from some corporate organisation’s  drivers, about 60 per cent of drivers on the road lack knowledge  of road traffic rules and regulations.

Ogunka noted that drivers, instead of enrolling in approved driving schools, prefer quacks to teach them driving. “You can only learn to drive but you lack the knowledge  of the rules  governing driving on the road,” he said, adding that a bus conductor will prefer to learn  from his master (the driver), a son from his father or friends, a wife from her husband, in  that order and basically they only know the driving, but do not know the rules.

He called on relevant road traffic management authority to urgently address the issue,  as it is one of the major causes of road accidents.