Frsc, Partners Seek Safer Motoring Environment

Nnamdi Uganwa

Curtailing the growing wave of mishaps on the roads across the nation can no longer be left to the Federal Road Safety Commission, FRSC, alone.

That must be the conviction of organisers of a one-day sensitisation programme for truck, trailer drivers and other road users in Abuja. The event, hosted by Proedge Communication, attracted several critical stakeholders and was designed to promote safe motoring environments to raise the consciousness of truck drivers and other road users on the best approach to scale down road crashes.

The programme was timely in many respects. It has the inclination to have a far-reaching effect in instilling some level of discipline in the road users during the ‘ember’ months, given the increased rate of carnage associated with this period each year.

Targeting truck drivers, according to the organizers, is strategic based on the research indicative that drivers of articulated vehicles constitute the bulk of those on the list of infractions and major accidents.

The event had representatives of drivers unions in attendance including the Unit Chairman, Petroleum Tankers Drivers, NUPENG, Alhaji Nma Mustapha; Chairman, Suleja/Abuja unit of Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Alhaji Yahaya Alhassan and the unit Chairman of Major Oil Marketers Association of Nigeria, Comrade Hassan Mohammed.

Corp Marshal of the Federal Roads Safety Commission, FRSC, Mr. Boboye Oyeyemi who decried the unsafe nature of the roads on account of the recklessness by drivers, enjoined the participants to be more responsible in the use of the roads in order to save lives and property.

Represented by the Commission’s Assistant Corps Marshal in- charge of Federal Operations, Adegoke Adetunji the FRSC boss provided the participants with standard procedure to follow towards ensuring safer roads and fuller lives.

He warned participants and indeed all road users against night travel, self-induced fatigue, over-speeding and wrong parking. He however emphasized the need for them to be well-skilled in driving; ensure that their vehicle particulars including their driver’s license are up-to-date and that they are in the right state of mind before embarking on every journey.

Particularly concerned about over-speed, night journey and fatigue, Oyeyemi explained the inherent dangers involved in each of them. He noted that as long as night is naturally designated for sleep and rest, embarking on night journeys meant cheating nature and therefore courting trouble, often manifested in fatal crashes.

He further noted that when a driver is over-speeding he does not have effective control of the vehicle. Given that vehicles are mechanical in nature any untoward incident on high speed often results in unimaginable devastation.

Similarly incensed by the increasing level of danger fatigue drivers have unleashed on the roads, he stressed the importance of road users resting adequately before embarking on any long journey. Accordingly, he sensitized them on the law that mandates drivers embarking on a long distance journey to park and rest adequately at intervals of four hours before continuing their trips.

The Corps Marshal may have relied on repository knowledge of the motoring environment and facts to caution the participants. Indeed, reports and statistics on road fatalities recorded by the National Bureau of Statistics underscore the warnings, directive and pieces of advice given at the event. NBS also disclosed in a report corroborated by the FRSC that over-speed, night journey, fatigue experienced largely by articulated vehicles drivers constitute the greatest springs of road fatalities in the country.

However, Mallam Auwalu Mohammed, a truck driver in Nasarawa, Nasarawa state who spoke on behalf of other participants, expressed profound appreciation to the organizers for sensitizing them on safer motoring environment. He noted the importance of holding the event on regular basis and emphasized the need for the Commission to work harmoniously with the road users particularly lorry drivers to ensure that the accidents on the roads are minimized.

Apart from the need to keep our roads safe during ‘ember’ months, records at NBS underpin the need for constant sensitization targeted mainly at truck and tanker drivers. For instance, NBS indicated that an average of 11,000 road mishaps occur each year in the country with an average of 5,000 deaths.

This, according NBS translates into 15 deaths that occur on daily basis from road fatalities, resulting in the more than 33 deaths per 100,000 people in the country. Moreover, between January and March 2020 there were 1,758 deaths from roads accidents and April and June the same there were 855 deaths. January this year alone there were about 25 ghastly accidents that claimed more than 204 lives in Nigeria.

Further studies have it that tanker explosions claimed over 230 lives between June 2018 and December 2020 and that during this period, over 70 persons also sustained serious injuries in crashes involving tankers and other articulated vehicles with properties estimated at millions of naira lost to fires from explosions, while many victims are still in hospitals battling to survive their injuries.

An instance is a recent devastating explosion along Mobolaji Bank-Anthony Way in Ikeja, Lagos, after a tanker laden with liquefied petroleum gas exploded and caught fire. In just few minutes, five persons and 25 vehicles were burnt to ashes while many shops in the Ogun State Property Investment Corporation plaza were affected leaving on its trail pains and sorrows. This is one among several incidents involving tankers and trucks in Lagos and other parts of the country.

A recent research also indicates that of about 358 transport accidents recorded in Nigeria between 2019 and 2020, out of which 70 percent involved were trucks and heavy duty vehicles, 32 percent of the trucks and tanker drivers were found to be below 30 years of age and most probably inexperienced to handle such demanding task.

These inexperienced drivers are clear and present dangers on the highways. The menace of tankers and trucks was corroborated by the Lagos State Commissioner for Special Duties, Mr Seye Oladejo who reckoned that over 300 tanker accidents were recorded in the state in 2020 with about 114 major disasters.

The picture painted above has evidently made Nigeria one of the highest accident- prone nations in Africa and globally. These realities enhance the imperative of seminars, conferences, workshops and even meetings of this nature geared towards improving the driving competences of the road users particularly tanker drivers to ensure harmless riding environment thereby scaling down shocking rate of accidents on the roads.

The United Nations Global Ministerial Conference on Road Safety in its third forum held in Sweden in February 2020, issued a fresh mandate, asking all nations to cut down road accidents by half before the end of 2030. This contribution by Proedge and other stakeholders is clearly a frontline role in helping to meet the global target and to change the orientation of tanker drivers.

Participants described the forum as timely in the ‘ember’ months. This is hinged on the fact that last four months of the year trigger fears in some people, especially those who make frequent use of the roads. As observed earlier this is because of the high accident rate recorded on the roads during this period. This informs the reason why the FRSC and other critical stakeholders especially those concerned with safety of lives and property and overall human development undertake programmes desirable to make the roads safe at all times.

Given the activities that peak during ‘ember’ months as a result of Christmas festivities, there is bound to be increased pressure on the roads. The mass movement, coinciding with heavy transport of goods and products, often take heavy tolls on human lives and the roads. During this period also, the preponderance of crop harvesting often necessitate increased presence of heavy duty vehicles on the roads, aside from others that similarly move petroleum products across communities due to insufficient rail system for proper distribution nationwide.