The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), said it had deployed 18,000 personnel including regular and special marshals, 800 patrol vehicles, 60 motor bikes, 52 ambulances and six heavy duty tow trucks along critical corridors of the highways as part of plans to ensure an accident-free Sallah celebration.
The corps stated that the nationwide special patrol slated for between September 30 and October, 12, 2014, was in line with its continued drive to achieve its 2014 strategic goals of reducing road traffic crashes by 15 per cent and fatalities by 25 per cent especially during the festive season.
A statement by the Corps Education Officer, Stella Uchegbu, yesterday in Abuja, noted that the exercise was designed in view of the expected high vehicular movement during the Sallah celebration and to address the possible tendencies for road traffic regulations violations by motorists.
According to the FRSC, the special patrol which is aimed at addressing the spate of avoidable road crashes usually associated with the festive season is an all-inclusive exercise that would entail intensive patrols, prompt rescue services, strict enforcement of traffic rules and robust public enlightenment campaigns across the country.
It said, “Objectives of this special exercise include the removal of obstructions from the highways, traffic control/decongestion, public enlightenment campaigns through the distribution of safety handbills, radio and television talk shows and other forms of awareness campaign, in addition to strict enforcement of road traffic regulation.
“Infractions such as the use of cell phone while driving, overloading, wrongful overtaking, lane violation, dangerous driving, drink driving, obstruction and other road vices will form part of the patrol thrust while the Corps’ operatives will equally check speed limit violation through the use of radar guns.”
Aside from massive deployment of personnel and logistics along designated corridors and black spots, the FRSC explained that it would also utilize its ‘9 Help Areas’ along Hawa Kibo, Akwanga, Gwagwalada, Lokoja, Ore, Egbeda, Mowe, Oghere and Kakau highways, in addition to the establishment of mobile courts at specific locations across the country for quick dispensation with road traffic offences.
Speaking on the Sallah special patrol, the Corps Marshal, Boboye Oyeyemi said that the nationwide exercise is part of the Corps’ sustained efforts to build on its ‘Ember months’ campaigns which, he said would be sustained throughout the end of the year to mitigate road crashes during the yuletide season.
He added that the agency has a consistent tradition of enforcing traffic rules and regulations throughout the year to avoid a one-off approach to road safety management in the country.
Commenting on speed limit violation, Oyeyemi said, “Our findings indicate that speed limit violations remain a prevalent factor on road traffic crashes, accounting for 39 per cent of road crashes recorded nationwide between January to August 2014. Out of all causative factors, speed violation, dangerous driving and loss of control which are speed-related, contribute to most crashes on our roads.
“This scenario informed a recent resolution after a stakeholders’ forum in Abuja to commence a nationwide enforcement of the compulsory use of speed limiters in all vehicles from June 1, 2015, with commercial vehicles forming part of the phase one of this proposed enforcement.”
The Corps Marshal also said that various forms of advocacy programmes have been initiated by the Corps to create robust nationwide awareness on the speed limiters which has been approved by the Standards Organization of Nigeria.
Meanwhile, the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC) in Ota, Ogun, said that it would use the radar gun device to detect speeding by motorists during the Eid-el-Kabir Sallah festival.
The Ota Unit Command of FRSC, Mr Sunday Omafu, said yesterday that the device would curtail the excesses of drivers and reduce road crashes.
“The motorists should desist from excessive speeding during the Sallah festival because they would be caught by the device,” Omafu said.
He said that the command would be on alert to carry out necessary rescue and enforcement during the period.
Omafu said that anyone caught would be prosecuted according to the state traffic law, adding that motorists should be ready to drive safe.
He, however, advised the Ogun Government to formulate strict transport laws that would check motorists like the one in Lagos State.