RSG Moves To Domesticate Road Safety Initiative

The Rivers State Government, has pledged commitment to the domestication of Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria’s road safety awareness drive as a means of reducing accidents on our roads, especially as the Yuletide season draws increasingly nearer.

The state Governor, Rt Hon Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi, who made this commitment at the flag-off of the “2011 safety run” in Port Harcourt recently, as part of a series of road safety awareness events organised by SPDC, and aimed at improving citizens’ consciousness towards road safety during this festive season, noted that the government was very pleased with Shell for catalysing the road safety process as a way of making Rivers roads safe for all those who live and do business in the state.

Represented by the state Commissioner for Health, Dr Sampson Parker, the governor stated that the government was determined to enforce existing laws on roads safety to eliminate carnage on the roads, adding that it was for this reason that the state Road Traffic Management Agency (TIMA-RIV) was set up.

He commended Shell for pioneering a sustainable road safety process, and promised to entrench it in the workings of the state government, and also work in partnership with all stakeholders to ensure achievement of the national accident reduction and road safety goal targets by 2015.

Amaechi stressed that the state’s huge road infrastructure development initiative was a critical aspect of the policy to make Rivers roads world-class and safe.

Similarly, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) has lauded Shell for not only preaching safety at all levels of activities but also practicalising the principles of road and occupational safety in workplaces and on the roads as a tool for fighting road accidents, and reducing deaths occasioned by unnecessary abuse of traffic rules and regulations.

The commission’s Corps Marshall, Mr Osita Chidoka, who said this was a mark of good corporate social responsibility, noted that the Shell policy was in tandem with FRSC’s monthly road show to sensitise Nigerians on the need to observe and comply with road safety laws and regulations.

Chidoka said that the policy was aimed at driving home the three cardinal goals of FRSC to reduce accidents on Nigerian roads by 50 per cent by the year 2012, achieve accident-free roads by 2015 through the application of global best practices, and become a world-class organisation by 2020, thus achieving the Decade of Road Safety goals set by the United Nations.

Nelson Chukwudi

President Goodluck Jonathan (left), with former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, during a Christmas Carol Service at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday.