FRSC Partners Stakeholders to Boost Youth Involvement in Road Safety Activities

The Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Abuja State Command, in collaboration with the World Health Organization (WHO) and GreenLight Initiative (GLI), has taken steps to increase young people’s participation in road safety activities as part of efforts to significantly reduce the number of fatalities in traffic crashes.

FRSC Corps Commander head, planning advisory unit HQ, Joshua Asaolu, disclosed this while addressing stakeholders, agencies and organisations at ICT hall, FRSC CHQ, Wuse zone 3, Abuja.

According to Asaolu, the FRSC has begun working with educational institutions at all levels, to incorporate basic principles of road safety into the curricula in an effort to reduce the number of people who die in traffic accidents.

He said, ” We know most children once they have an understanding of something these days they are bold enough to tell their parents. So FRSC started by bringing in road safety to the curriculum of children.

” This is taken from secondary school level and to the universities when they graduate, than also the road safety club now the NYSC road safety club. During their CDS also, we bring them together not only to understand what road safety is all about but to also make them participate during their CDs on projects that will bring awareness to the public on road safety matters.” He said.

Also, Executive Director GreenLight Initiative (GLI), Simon Patrick Obi, on his part said based on facts road traffic fatalities are the number one leading cause of death among young people globally.

He said it was in this background that his initiative find it incumbent that key stakeholders in the transportation sector find ways to ensure that there was meaningful youth involvement in road safety since they have a huge role to play in protecting themselves and other road users.

Speaking on he noted that the global youth coalition had already launched a policy maker tools kits that will bridge the gaps that limits meanful Youth participation in road safety.

According to him, the tool kit is targeted at equipping government agencies and stakeholders with skills and knowledge necessary to handle all sorts of emergencies, thereby enhancing the chances of survival of road crash victims and ultimately limiting road crashes significantly.

Technical officer for non-communicable diseases at the World Health Organization, Dr. Mary Dewan, said in her capacity as a representative of the organization that the UN has gathered data from previous incidents and road accidents to better its programs.

She continued by saying that the WHO had already begun planning to gather staff from all regional offices and the headquarters to provide an updated UN action plan on road safety in the coming year.

She said, ” Whenever we have opportunities to interact with the government or member states, we bring the issue of road safety as the number one killer among children and youth at the forefront to ensure Member States put in the necessary strategies in place to prevent this.

” The second is meaningful engagement of youth. So now you have for example, in 2020, there was the global meeting where it was basically youth driven, and it was very successful, and also talking now about inclusivity and diversity all age groups should be involved, especially as mostly affected.” She said.