Road Crashes: FRSC Begins Training Campaign

The Federal Road
Safety Commission (FRSC) in Abuja yesterday began a teacher training campaign to curb road crashes in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The training tagged, “Train the Trainer’’, was organised for teachers by the commission in collaboration with stakeholders under its “Nigerian Road Safety Partnership’’ .
Mr Babagana Ibrahim, a retired Deputy Corps Marshall and the project manager for the partnership, said the training was aimed at equipping teachers to be road safety vanguards.
“The Nigerian Road Safety Partnership is teaming up with the FRSC to achieve a drastic reduction in road traffic crashes,” he said.
Ibrahim said the approach was conceived to build capacity among members in identified communities for the people to  better understand the philosophy of safety on the road.
He said the partnership was also aimed at improving signs and markings on the roads.
“We chose Garki as a community, we have improved signs and markings on its roads, what we are doing now is to identify people who can offer training and the prime stakeholders are the educationists.
“We nominated two teachers from each school in Garki, strengthened their understanding of road safety and they in turn can impart what they have learnt in pupils and students,’’ he said.
He said the training to be extended to traders, resident associations and the entire Garki community would be replicated in other communities in the territory and the country.
Ibrahim said that the training was premised on the study of the behaviour of road users and their knowledge of road safety and road rules.
He urged Nigerians to learn and obey road traffic rules to curb crashes, noting that 95 per cent of road crashes could be avoided if rules were obeyed.
Some of the participants in the training promised to impart the knowledge gained in their students and colleagues.
Deborah Ohene a teacher in the Junior Secondary School in Area 11, Garki, said teachers could teach road safety under subjects, such as social studies, health science or during counselling.
The teachers were trained on safe road usage, vehicle maintenance, driving attitude, reading road marks and understanding the impact of weather on the road.