SPDC Tasks Stakeholders On Children Safety On Roads

The Anglo Dutch oil giant,
Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria (SPDC) has urged parents, school authorities, members of the public especially agencies responsible for the maintenance of safety on the roads to always pay special attention to school children who use the roads to and fro their  schools.
The Government and Community Relations Manager East of SPDC, Mr Edesiri Akpomudjere made the call last Monday during this year’s edition of the company’s “Safe Routes to School” programme held at Saint Andrews Primary School Mile 1 Diobu in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State Capital.
Akpomudjere said that incidents on the road according to records, contribute to major cause of deaths globally, compared to other causes of deaths.
He noted that school children are most vulnerable to deaths on the road in their journey to and fro their schools and stressed the need for all in the society to contribute towards checking the ugly trend.
The manager noted that it was out of concern that SPDC in partnership with the Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), state governments and other appropriate agencies to see how carnage on the roads could be reduced as a lot of students lives have been wasted on the road.
“As a company, we belief so much in partnership since no single organisation can do it alone.  Road accident is one of the major killers”, Akpomudjere stated.
He particularly appealed to the transport unions and drivers to maintain high safety standard while using the road, noting that carelessness and recklessness of some drivers have led to a lot of avoidable deaths on road.
The event featured practical training of selected pupils on how to control traffic on the road when students cross public roads.  An Assistant Road Commander with FRSC, Rivers State Command, Fidelia Agu co-ordinated the training.

Chris Oluoh