The Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) of Nigeria Limited has attributed 22 per cent of deaths, estimated at 1.25million globally, to road accidents due largely to drivers’ recklessness, fatigue and drug abuse.
Speaking during a stakeholders’ forum titled: “Drivers’ Health And Road Safety, Taking Goal Zero Outside The Fence”, organised by SPDC, last Wednesday in Port Harcourt, Shell Regional Community Health Manager, Dr Akinwumi Fajola stated that road accidents have led to alot of deaths and casualties.
Fajola emphasised that Shell was already winning the fight against road accidents and other fatalities among staff, families, friends, colleagues and contractors through its ‘Goal Zero’ policy within the business, but added that following disturbing results of a recent study arising from its Health-In-Motion programmes in Port Harcourt and Lagos, the company decided to take the message beyond the Shell’s fence to other stakeholders, including the Federal Road Safety Commission, Rivers State Ministry of Transport, state and federal ministries of health, members of National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) as well as Petroleum Tanker Drivers chapter of National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers of Nigeria (NUPENG), and others involved in road and water transport business in the country to help reduce carnage and casualties on the roads and waterways.
“Shell runs a flagship programme called ‘Health-In-Motion,’ where we take health to the door steps of our communities and where they live and work because, for us, drivers’ health and road safety is very key, and unfortunately, in our environment, it has been relegated to the background for years.”
He noted that last year, Shell took healthcare to more than 2,500 drivers at Mile Three Motor Park in Diobu, Petroleum Tanker Drivers’ Park at Eleme in Rivers State and Ojota Motor Park in Lagos, and discovered that although majority of the drivers were educated, but were reckless on the roads due to a number of factors, including fatigue, drug abuse, passengers’ influence, poor vehicle maintenance records, among others.
Fajola challenged the stakeholders comprising FRSC, NURTW, NUPENG-PTD, transport and health practitioners in the public and private sectors, town and urban planners, NGOs, media, to work together to find the way forward through pragmatic suggestions to inform policy shift that would help reduce road accidents on the highways, particularly in the Niger Delta region.
While charging FRSC to ensure that drivers were subjected to all necessary body wellness, eye and mental tests before the issuance of drivers’ licenses as well as mobile clinics to track driver’s alcohol level on highways, he advocated strategic synergy between the drivers’ unions, local government authorities and the police to check sale of illicit drugs and alcohol in motor parks across the country.
Speaking on “Health: An Important Social Investment”, General Manager, External Relations, Igo Weli reiterated SPDC’s commitment to enhance the health of the people in the Niger Delta, as according to him, ‘health is wealth’, adding that Shell would rather stop oil production to guarantee the health and safety of people and the environment.
While appealing to Niger Delta people to create the enabling environment for businesses to thrive and for more global brands to invest and employ people in the region, Weli called on drivers to ensure their safety first as they drive, reminding them that if they lose their lives, they would have lost everything.
In his presentation on “Road Safety/Driver Health: A Public Health Issue?”, CEO of Nigeria Health Watch, Dr Ifeanyi Nsofor, said that an estimated 320 persons die every day from road accidents in Nigeria, comparing it to a crash of two Boeing 737 airplanes with over 150 passengers and crew in Nigerian airspace daily.
Nsofor attributed the high fatality figures to bad roads, drivers’ factor, including recklessness, intake of alcohol and illicit drugs before embarking on or during journeys, poor vehicle maintenance culture, fatigue due to restlessness and lack of enough sleep, as well as other passenger factor.
Also speaking, Chairman, NURTW, Rivers State chapter, Pastor Ominiayebagha Duma-Kalango said that the union was seriously involved in ensuring that drivers drive safely at all times, especially on the highways, and listed some strategies put in place to ensure drivers’ safety to include regular sensitization of drivers, drivers’ alcohol intake level and blood pressure tests, discouraging the sale of alcohol and other harmful drugs at the motor parks, among others.
He noted that the union was working in synergy with the FRSC to regularly organize sensitization programmes for drivers, but blamed the local government authorities who issue licenses to alcohol vendors in the parks and the law enforcement agencies, especially police for contributing to the rising carnage on the roads.
He commended SPDC for the onerous work they were doing in ensuring drivers’ safety in the Niger Delta, while charging other companies in the region to emulate SPDC’s social investments in drivers’ and road safety to save more lives.
In his remarks, Rivers State Commissioner for Transport, Hon Michael West assured that the Rivers State Government would do everything necessary to ensure that accidents on the roads were reduced to the barest minimum through regular sensitisation, road infrastructure development and deployment of road signs where necessary, and sanctioning of traffic offenders to serve as a deterrent to others.
Represented by the Director, Safety and Aviation, Engr Saya Antioch, West noted that the ministry was working in collaboration with the FRSC, NURTW and other stakeholders to ensure drivers undergo the necessary tests while defaulters were prosecuted, charging the FRSC on the need to include major drivers’ health challenges in the criteria for issuance of driver’s licenses.
Highlight of the event was the presentation of some tranquiliser equipment to representatives of the various drivers’ unions and other stakeholders.

Susan Serekara-Nwikhana